All participants will be in listen-only mode while the company presents the results. Afterwards, we will begin a Q&A session. Questions can be sent via audio by clicking on the Raise Hand icon, also found at the bottom of your Zoom screen. To send questions in writing, simply click the Q&A icon, also found on the screen, and then type in your question. Before moving on, we would like to state that any forward-looking statements made during this call regarding the company's business outlook, operating and financial forecasts and goals, as well as 3tentos future growth potential, are based on the company's current expectations and assumptions, and on current information. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not materialize.
Investors should have in mind that general economic conditions, agribusiness conditions, and other operating factors may affect 3tentos future performance and lead to results that will differ considerably from those expressing these forward-looking statements. I now would like to turn the floor over to Mr. João Marcelo Dumoncel. Over to you, Mr. Dumoncel. You may carry on. Thank you.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q2 Results Call. Thank you for your attention once again. We will start by showing you the highlights for the quarter, Q2 2026. The company continues on its growth momentum as per the thesis we have been advocating and exercising throughout the years. This is the 30th consecutive quarter where the company has a growth in revenue.
This quarter, in particular, this growth was driven by ag inputs and grains, as I mentioned, and also about a record soybean harvest in Brazil making up for losses in the Rio Grande do Sul as well in terms of crop numbers. In terms of inputs, we have delivered an increase in canola acreage in Rio Grande do Sul. We more than doubled canola acreage, and 3tentos has been an important player in this scenario, fostering growers and fostering this crop in Rio Grande do Sul as an alternative for a second crop. This has been a quarter where we have finalized the expansions both for the soybean industries and we have started the new ethanol plant in the Vale do Araguaia region. When we look in terms of revenue. On the next slide, please.
When you look from the lenses of net revenue, we have an important growth in the quarter, over 30% of growth. When we look for the first six months, the first half of the year, we can already realize that this growth is consistent or has been consistent throughout the year up to now. We also have numbers relative to the whole first half of the year, 2026, especially in terms of bottom line. Some mitigation of the seasonal effects, and we have a more trustworthy view of the year. We are growing both adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income to the tune of 12% and 14% respectively. EBITDA and net income.
Looking at the revenue for different segments on the next slide, we see that different segments have all grown, as I mentioned, especially ag inputs and grains, which saw an important growth, in particular the grains segment and industry, where in terms of revenue, we saw a growth which was slightly lower. Basically coming from a growth in volume, provided that the costs were lower in this quarter. The volume of growth, grains grew especially because of a bumper crop that we had in soybeans. The results for inputs has an important effect involving canola. 3tentos has an important share in promoting canola, as I just mentioned. This quarter, Q2, is the moment where we have helped implement those new canola acreages in Rio Grande do Sul.
Also worth mentioning, the gain in Ag inputs has been continuous, especially across new stores. Not only the stores which are now being ramped up, but with a good outlook for the stores which have been recently opened in the states where we have just started operating. Still around the industry, we had a scenario, and I am going to go into more detail in the coming slides. In addition to the growth in revenue being lower than the other segments, we also had an impact coming from a drop in prices, as I also mentioned, and also coming from a drop in profitability. Next slide, please, if you may. Then we have this bit of information about the industrial segment. On the left-hand side of the chart, we have a comparison across margins.
Just as we had for revenue and net income, the margins for Q2 are here expressed on the chart comparing Q2 2025 and Q2 2026, and the first half of the year of last year and this year, 2025 vis-à-vis 2026. What can we tell? What were the offenders for that drop in margin for the quarter in the industrial segment? Number one, and the main one, there is a quantification of that impact in percentage points on the margin, is the drop in profitability coming from biodiesel. That was driven by the delay in the mandatory blend. Today we have B15, and our prediction was that this would increase to B16 in March. That increase did not happen, and that created a pressure in the market, which was an important factor that led to a sharp drop.
On the chart below, you see the behavior of biodiesel, the fees for the last 12 months, and we can say we had negotiations for Q1 at very high levels, and a drop, which was quite important, in negotiations for the second quarter. The profitability around biodiesel in the case of 3tentos, it is combined with other factors that are highlighted here as well. We had a loss of profitability in our soybean meal business, 0.4%. We also had a drop in profitability because of an increase in costs in input, Item 3, including methanol and hexane, which are important ingredients for our cost composition, both for soybean crushing and for the production of biodiesel. The impact was 0.75 percentage points on the margin. That happened because of the war. Those are products that come from oil. They are oil by-products.
We also had impact coming from soybean meal and oil commitments, which were in line with the predicted capacities that we had, that we had defined for production and crushing for the second half. But because of that delay, they never materialized. So that adjustment of those commitments, agreements that were made by buying meal from third parties or oil negotiations being sold before being processed, that led to an impact to the tune of 0.8 percentage points on the industry margin. Finally, the fifth point is the suspension of the PIS/COFINS tax or taxes during the quarter. That had an impact of 0.4 percentage points on the margin approximately. Just like Item 3, an increase in input costs, those two combined were driven by the war. Item 5 has been reversed. That suspension is no longer valid.
That was lifted at the end of July. The soybean meal and oil commitments, Item 4, that the company had to go to market to raise and make adjustments because of the delay of the mandatory blend for biodiesel and soybean crushing, that is not a recurring fact either. The profitability of biodiesel, you can see on the chart in the middle that there is a trend for that curve to be reversed in terms of price. Not yet at previous levels, but there is a trend that shows some recovery in the fees. Also for the meal prices, we see signs that improvements are in the horizon.
The idea for this slide was to be as transparent as possible to clarify where we sit in terms of margins for the industrial segment, which was the segment that led to a drop in numbers, to a drop in margins that we see in the first chart on the left. If we look at the next slide, please. We have what I just said, but now translated into numbers. We had a growth in net operating revenue, both in the quarter and in the first half, a revenue of BRL 4.7 billion. The year to date for the first half, a growth of 12.8%. A drop in margin, but a growth in absolute figures.
When you look at it from the point of view of the whole half, first half of the year, I would like to reinforce that there are aspects to that picture that are seasonal or non-recurring. That is why we wanted to break that down in detail and share that with you. I now turn the floor over to Cristiano. He will go into more detail on the financial numbers. Over to you.
Good morning, everyone. The next slide give us some color on what the quarter was in terms of our net debt. We closed December last year with a net debt of about BRL 1.6 billion, and we closed the quarter at the half of the year on June 30th at BRL 3.6 billion.
That variation reflects a need for working capital, which is a seasonal need for the company, where we recover our inventory throughout the first half, especially the second quarter of the first half, and also final investments as we expand our industry segment. BRL 1.3 billion to recover inventories throughout the half and about BRL 500 million in terms of CapEx. Those two amounts combined account for almost all the variation in our net debt, BRL 1.845 billion. There is a need for working capital, which is totally consistent with our production dynamics. This is a first breakdown of how that net debt varied. On the next slide, we have our net debt throughout the time. As you can see on the left-hand side of the slide, usually we have an increase in debt throughout the second quarter because of an increase in inventory.
When we look from Q1 to Q2 2025, that also happened, BRL 1.460 billion. Throughout 2025, we can see that from the Q2 to Q4, that net debt drops, which reflects the fact that that inventory is transformed into finalized products. Why hasn't that drop played out in a more consistent manner? Because we are working on our industrial CapEx, and we ended the year with a net debt of 1.2 x our adjusted EBITDA as a hedging. This is a new metric that the market has adopted. We have been explaining that this is the best way to reflect where the company stands.
When we see that same variation between Q2 2026 and Q2, Q3 2026, we see a growth of about BRL 1.6 billion, which reflects the whole variation in inventory that we have received, or the soybeans we have received, and we have stored for that, so that in the second half of the year, we can crush. We understood that, in light of all those factors that Mr. João Marcelo has just explained that we saw in the second quarter, that we could have an EBITDA line a little slightly more compromised by the war and other market dynamics. We talked with our creditors, and we made a methodological adjustment. Instead of using pure EBITDA as we used before in contracts, we started to use this new metric, which is conceptually more adequate to our business, which is the adjusted EBITDA with the hedges effect included.
If you observe in our financial statements today, the hedge effect coming from that combination is higher than 45% or 50% of all our EBITDA. There is a dynamics to hedge or protect the company, which is totally in line with the commodity price dynamics and foreign exchange dynamics, which you have seen for the past 18 months. Of course, we also understand we are still following our working capital planning, quite reassured. All creditors have understood this new metric, and they also understood the dynamics of the company within that seasonality that was mentioned. On the top right-hand side of the slide, we can see that usually we have a drop of about 42% in our inventory levels. If we look at our inventory today, it is sitting at BRL 4.2 billion.
If we include that number to estimate what will be happening in the second half of the year, we are talking about BRL 1.7 billion in terms of reduction with an additional component, which is the following. Throughout the second half of 2025, we had a volume of BRL 862 million of CapEx, which will not happen in the second half of 2026. If we were to follow this dynamics, this momentum of transforming all that inventory into finalized products and ship out and transform that into revenue, we will resume adequate levels of net debt over EBITDA, which is the metric you will use to adjust the hedges. We are, as I said, quite reassured, and we are confident that we will be able to carry this on.
At the same time, we need to continue our job to recover margins, as João Marcelo said, so that we can resume previous levels, which we deem to be healthier to start or to kick off 2027 in a more adequate position. In terms of leveraging dynamics, that is what I had. In terms of the waiver, we talked. We did it over the accounting period before June 30th, with no default or reclassification of that. That is what I had. For that, I turn the floor back over to Luiz Augusto for him to talk a bit about the quarter and how this quarter is an important moment for the company. But even more relevant is that we have a long-term dynamics quite well in place and quite well on track. Hello, Luiz Augusto. Can you hear us?
First thing which is important to say, we are finalizing the corn ethanol plant in Mato Grosso. We have been investing heavily in the past two years. We completed that in June, mid-June. The ramp-up started. It had an important contribution in terms of revenue, about zero in the second quarter. We will see results coming in Q3. But to have a full contribution, we will have to wait for Q4. In Q3, we are still ramping it up. Even though in the current basis, the ramp-up is happening in a very successful manner, and we are already operating at full nominal capacity, 2,800 tons of corn a day. We are quite happy with this ramp-up. With the operational ramp-up, of course, we are a bit behind. We were expecting to have this up and running by late March, initially.
We had three months where we lagged behind, but everything is back on track, and the ramp-up has been concluded. Next slide, please. As for the stores, we have more stores open in the second quarter, in line with what we had announced as of late last year, have reached the level of 81 stores. Those six new stores were opened in the expansion areas, as we call them. Expansion areas, they are four new states, Goiás, Minas, Tocantins, and Pará. Totally eight stores across those four new states. In addition to those eight stores, we have 14 stores in Mato Grosso, along with the two industries, Vera and Porto Alegre do Norte, and 59 stores in Rio Grande do Sul, along with the two industrial plants in Ijuí and Cruz Alta. If we move to the next slide.
We have a summary, a compilation, if you will, of all the numbers from a long-term view so that we can show the consistency of our thesis, the consistency of our results delivery, our growth. We try to draw a timeline to convey to you all the reassurance, all the confidence we have in our business model and what we are delivering now. If we look in terms of net revenue, we had between 2023 and 2025, an average CAGR of 35%, and we already have reached a CAGR of 26% when we compare 2025 to 2026. In terms of adjusted EBITDA, we also had an important growth from between 2023 and 2025. We continue to grow EBITDA, of course, in this comparison at a slower pace because of what we have already discussed.
Especially linked to industry margins and a CapEx space which was quite intense last year, 2025, especially as we reach the construction of Porto Alegre do Norte, but also with investments in expansion. Once again, to recap. We invested in soybean crushing and also biodiesel production plants. Those investments, we have them itemized. In 2023, we completed the soybean processing plant in Vera. We acquired the 3tentos CAP. We opened six new stores. The trading division was established, and Mato Grosso accounted for an important share of our net revenue. 2024, we continued to grow in Mato Grosso. We opened yet other seven stores. For 2025, we will increase by 40% in our capacity processing in soybean and 62% in the production of biodiesel. We started the process to increase those productions. We have opened new stores, and Mato Grosso continue to increase their share and their revenue.
As I just mentioned, in the first half of 2026, we opened eight new stores in new states, as I mentioned, and we concluded the first ethanol plant in Mato Grosso. This is sort of a journey of deliveries that we have been threading and which makes us all very confident of our capacity, of our consistency, of our thesis. Despite some seasonal effects, some seasonal cycling effects that inherent to the business and are quite common in the agribusiness scenario as a whole. In terms of the long-term vision, we continue on our track. We have opened new stores, as I mentioned. Of course, very cautiously moving forward, trying to identify opportunities and of course, using a very solid rationale. It has to be viable for us to move forward. Right now, as investments in infrastructure, we have been more conservative, if you will.
It is not in our radar to make larger investments in CapEx, in the short run anyway. We had the start of 3tentos Ethanol, a new activity for us, which is now being consolidated within our ecosystem. We expanded our industrial complexes. As I mentioned, the canola in Rio Grande also a highlight. We have a summer crop, which was quite promising, the last crop. Good expectations for the next crop as well, and also a material fact that we announced in terms of guidance for the second half of 2026, an update of that, once again, reaffirming the figures for the second half of 2026. In summary, that is what we had, and now we remain available for questions or comments that you may have. We are all available to address questions or doubts that you may have.
Reaffirming, as I said, our trust, our confidence in the business, our confidence in our thesis, and the structure the company has put together. Four industries working at full steam. 81 stores. 250 consultants out in the field providing support to growers every single day, selling inputs. The operation is completely up and running and moving forward, and we're quite confident for the second half. The second half of the year has, of course, as usual, many challenges, but we are prepared to face them all.
We'll now start the Q&A sessions. Questions can be made through audio by clicking on the icon, Raise Your Hand. It can be found in the bottom part of your screen right now. A prompt will appear for you to unmute your mic to send your question in writing.
Just click on the Q&A icon, also on the bottom part of your screen, and then type in your question. Our first question comes from Lucas Ferreira from JP Morgan. Lucas, you may carry on.
Hello. Good morning, everyone. My first question is about corn ethanol. Now that you have reached nominal capacity, do you have any numbers you could share in terms of profitability of the plant based on the corn you have bought? Are you able to give that prediction, the quality of the DDG coming from that? Discounts compared to the industry numbers. Just to better understand your vision on your break-even cost for that plant, for example, and how to look on profitability, if you could. Also about stores in new states. How are those stores being received, right, or performing in terms of market share?
That learning curve, if you will, for those new stores, especially in a year where we have El Niño coming in for those new regions. So what can you tell us about that? Thank you.
Can you hear me now?
Yes. Now we can. Mr. Luiz.
Okay. Good morning, everyone. I apologize for the technical glitch, but I was able to hear João Marcelo, so I'd like to reinforce our confidence, our commitment. I see 3tentos as a very strong company in its ecosystem. Lucas, I apologize. I'm going to recap a little bit, but I'll soon get to your question. This is an agribusiness company that is prepared to face seasonalities, volatility. If we go back to 2021, the IPO, in 2 and a half years, we delivered all the plan we had committed to at the time. With the BR-163 plant up and running.
Then we started our second growth cycle, and today we already have 81 stores out of the 100 we had proposed by 2030. The ethanol plant in Porto Alegre do Norte, also operational. So the whole plan is almost delivered. I'd also like to make a comment about the leverage level of the company. On June 30th, 2026, we were on track. We knew it was going to be a higher leverage because of all the investment that was made. 20 million tons for the crop, soy crop in Rio Grande, over 50 million tons of soybean in Mato Grosso, in addition to the corn origination. So in short, we prepared for that moment. On July 1st, we started the second half of the year with all that investment behind us, and now we can manage that, right? So those 81 stores, four plants operational and across six states.
I think Luiz froze again. João, if you could please carry on.
Going back to Lucas's question then. Perhaps Luiz can come back. Lucas, I can answer your questions now. First of all, in terms of ethanol, we are still in the ramp-up phase, including the commercial ramp-up. We are trading ethanol. We do have active contracts in place. We are also selling in the spot market. I would not have a guidance now in terms of profitability to share with you at this point. What I do have, of course, is that we are quite bullish with the potential demand. The market is wide open, and we are able to trade that regionally. Also DDG, of course. DDG has been performing really, really well in the region specifically. Surprisingly enough, our DDG book is filled until the end of the year.
We are already trying to manage a pent-up demand for DDG, and that is a very important factor for us. Especially for feedlots in the region. As for the stores, the resellers, our expectation for the year for those new stores is still a more conservative expectation. The stores ramp up from the opening day, then we get together the teams. That team is then introduced to the market. That, of course, takes time. There is a sequence of events that need to unfold and which not happen overnight. So it takes some time for us to gain traction, if you will, in the coming periods. Our expectation is that the revenue for those new regions will sit at around 6%-8% of the overall revenue for imports for the whole company. Not yet that relevant.
From the qualitative point of view, we are quite excited with those new regions because we were quite well received and welcome. We understand that markets understand and like our value proposition. Farmers are buying into our program. Our teams are also out in the field working well. We have highly qualified professionals, experienced professionals who have worked in the region before, and who understood our value proposition as well, and have also bought into the program and now are helping us add value to those regions, which is our motto. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Gustavo Troyano from Itaú BBA. Mr. Troyano, you may carry on.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. First, about the industry segment.
I would like to go back to that slide where you had a breakdown of all the impacts from the quarter and focus specifically on the non-implementation of the B16, those 4 percentage points that you mentioned coming from that delay. I would like to get your perception on how comfortable you are that those 4 points will be recovered in the second half of the year, and recover more normalized levels. The trend curve shows that, but I would like to hear from you, how comfortable are you that that trend will continue? Based on your momentum, on your track record, how long are non-integrated players able to operate with that bio fee, which seems to be low? So you may have to react to that. A bit of your perception in terms of the timeline that that will take to happen.
It doesn't seem to be profitable today with that level of fees. The second question about the leverage, the inventory levels that Cristiano mentioned. You said historically, inventory will drop by 40% from here on in to the end of the year. Does it make sense for us to think that that level of reduction will follow the track record? Or if there is any other reason that would lead that second half to be slightly different from what you've had historically, as we move towards the end of the year. Thank you.
I can start, and then Cristiano will help me out here. Luiz Augusto can also jump in. As for the industry, Troyano, we have a reduction in the fees. As we see in the chart, there is a trend, a downward trend, not necessarily recovering the full 4 percentage points.
We know that the second half does show an improvement in the fees because we leave the cycle, the year, and supply tends to be more stable. But the B16 delay and the trend is that it won't happen in the second half, and that will be a factor that will continue to be present. There is a possibility for us to see an improvement in the fee as the chart shows, but perhaps not enough to recover those 4 percentage points. That's how we feel about it today. You also talked about non-integrated players. Also, the feeling in the market, the sentiment in the market is that, to some extent, we will need to have an increase in fee or necessarily have to have some kind of drop in the supply level because of that dynamic. As for the leverage level, Cristiano, if you want to take over.
Yeah, sure. Troyano, thank you for your question. We presented our global inventory dynamics, and we're talking about grains plus finished products. If you look at our explanatory notes for inventories, if you add what we have in biodiesel at home, oil, meal, and grains, today it's BRL 3.2 billion. We would imagine that we could reach the end of the year within our forecast. Even if we are more conservative, about 35% instead of 42%, still, we would reach the end of the year in a position that we deem to be adequate. Of course, we'll carry over some more inventory than last year, but we are now working with industrial capacities which are quite relevant in terms of expansions and so on. We need to have inventories for about 60- 90 days. That has to make sense.
Looking at the cost to carry that inventory, of course, the market dynamics for pricing, we're always monitoring that and doing the hedges that are necessary. If you want to use a deflator for that 42% - 35%, that might make sense, 42% - 35%. Something I did not mention, but it might be worth mentioning now, we also had an increase of recoverable tax. We have been working to make those resources become cash. Of course, there's a new law which is going to be put in place that might help us recover some of those taxes. As the new law is implemented. That's a slightly more airy, more difficult topic, more complex, and we don't want to use that as a deleveraging factor. Just to mention, it is also a point to be taken into account, the new tax law.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Guilherme Palhares from Santander. Mr. Palhares, you may carry on.
Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. I would like to have a follow-up on the question about the CapEx for the ethanol plant. You said BRL 1.5 billion on the slide. How can we compare that with budget given that there is a capitalized interest rates issue? If you could break that down, a bridge of that investment, and also to understand how much of that investment had already been made so that we can understand if that CapEx includes anything else as you expand the plant. I know it is a modular plant, so how much has been done and how much needs to be done, looking at the midterm. A second question, if we could go back to Troyano's question about the biodiesel fees.
It seems to me that it is also a matter of distribution. There is a gradual process of cleaning that up. Based on your experience, do you have an average time for that? We have had that happen before, delay in blends, and then margins were recovered. That movement has happened before. If you could share your expectations based on your experience in terms of the absorption of those volumes vis-a-vis the delay in the mandatory blends.
I can talk about CapEx, and then Cristiano will address the other question, the biodiesel fees. Luiz Augusto can also jump in and talk about distribution. As for the ethanol CapEx, we did not make a final review of the CapEx because the plants started to operate just now at the end of Q2.
So, it does take structural preparation, things that made sense for a potential expansion, and also the interest rates capitalization, which makes this CapEx behave as it has from BRL 1.3 billion, which we had announced, to BRL 1.5 billion, which we have just shared as the new CapEx. So basically, we have to include the interest rates issue and that preparation for a potential expansion, something we had already mentioned in case we need to increase capacity. So some things were made, especially relative to infrastructure, the drying, the energy portions, several technical parts or aspects that have prepared for a potential expansion, as I said. Mr. Augusto, can you complement in terms of the fee for biodiesel?
Oh, yeah, sure. Good morning, Palhares and everyone. Thank you for your question. As for the biodiesel fee, you are correct. It is not new.
That has happened, as you mentioned, in the biodiesel industry throughout the years. We have been in this market since 2014. We have seen cuts in the blend, blends that were delayed and are affected, and the fees. Right now, we are now going through yet another period where there is a delay in the mandatory blend. So we understand that, yes, that has happened, and distributors are trying to buy before time or to push their purchases slightly forward. So they have a lot of product in their portfolios because of that. I would say that throughout these five years where we no longer have the auction and format in place, this is a scenario where there was a delay, but there was no crop failure, for example. So throughout these five years, we had, for example, some problems.
Mato Grosso had a problem, slightly lower, but also impacted the supply scenario. This year, as Luiz Augusto mentioned, both Mato Grosso and Rio Grande do Sul harvested good to very good crops, and still we had that delay in the B16 blend. That's about how we see. I think if you look back, as you said, it's nothing new.
Okay. Thank you. Have a nice day.
Palhares, just one final compliment. BRL 237 million in capitalized interest rates, just to be sure you have the number.
Okay. Thank you, Cristiano.
Our next question comes from Leonardo Alencar from XP. Mr. Alencar, you may carry on.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. First off, if you could mention what is one-off, what's recurrent in logistics, that has a correlation with the grain trading segment.
Because of that volatility on that line, if you could give us some more detail on that. Also the input dynamics was positive. Margins have improved, quite healthy, especially in the south. If you could talk from the point of view of growers, are they delaying purchases? From the point of view of the growers. One follow-up, going back to biodiesel. If I got it right, you're talking about profitability. There was a drop in profitability in biodiesel, and the chart shows a variation in fees, so there's a marginal improvement. If we were to follow up on that model, a B16 happening only early next year or second half of next year, with the El Niño coming, how do you see that evolution going forward of those fees? What does that negative part on the chart mean?
I didn't really understand that negative portion of the graph or the chart.
I'll start by the input question, and then I'd like to ask Luiz Augusto to help me out with the logistics question and the fees. Leonardo, as for the inputs question, as I said, we are performing around important volumes and also important amounts. From the point of view of the grower, to your point, there is a certain level of caution, a certain delay in the decision-making process. The war really affected the dynamics, especially because of fertilizer prices. Those who had bought fertilizers before the war, all good, especially in the Midwest market. In Rio Grande, they were less prepared. When the war started, the market sort of freezes for some time. Prices went through the roof, then went back down after that. Didn't resume previous levels, of course.
They started to slow down, if you will, to snap back. Now we have logistics terms, of course. You have to bring that product to Brazil in time to be used. Farmers are making their decisions now, and they're trying to use less fertilizers. The fertilizers industry has announced that they expect to see lower volumes in terms of fertilizer sales across the country. Growers are also looking at costs. As I said, the input market is very resilient. Growers cannot get around not buying inputs. Seeds, fertilizer, they can use less, but they cannot simply eliminate the purchase of inputs and seeds. They depend on yield, and they need to resort to technology, of course, also. The same thing goes for crop protection products, which will serve as a hedge and crop protection, as the name says. Those investments have to be made.
Luiz Augusto, can you help me out with the biodiesel fees and logistics?
Thank you for the question. As for logistics, the best analysis that can be made in this quarter is the breakdown of revenue, where we can see that grains had a higher share when compared to the historical levels. Not because grains are speeding up, but because of something we mentioned before, the delay in the industry. Grains, as we know, carry the largest freight costs. 100% of the product is affected, the whole ton. Unlike industrialized products where it probably impacts meal, but minus FOB for biofuel, both ethanol and biodiesel. Of course, here we are talking about biodiesel mainly. We do have a lot of FOB sales, and the logistics fall under the responsibility of the customers.
As for biodiesel fees, if I understood the question, and trying to shed some light on what that chart represents, the fee is a sort of a premium, if I may. The market calls it fee. That is the lingo that buyers and distributors use. But that fee is but a premium that regulates pricing of soybean oil and the appetite regulated by supply and demand. Every two months, other negotiations might happen in different times. It is usually every two months, every bimester, we need to sit down and negotiate. We have to upload numbers to the ANP system. That is a fee that is negotiated. It is actually a premium. A better name would be premium for biodiesel.
Just one final question.
In the negative area of the chart, does that mean that other players will leave the market because it would not make sense to work in the biodiesel market? I
would not say that is a straightforward conclusion, because we do have soybean oil also. Just as premiums for biodiesel are there, you have premiums for oil, soybean oil, Chicago plus basis, meal also. Sometimes the results are there, even in a scenario where you have negative basis. Out of all the products that we work, coming from soybean to biodiesel, they have the same basis dynamics. But in this case that we are talking about, specifically about biodiesel, the pressure is higher right now. So right now, the answer is yes. It is the main offender, if you will, for that biodiesel account or line, if you will.
Thank you.
As a complement, the fact that you have a negative basis, it does not mean it is not delivering results. It is simply a price adjustment, because this is a price-forming mechanism based on the Chicago Board of Trade numbers or CME numbers.
Our next question comes from Thiago Duarte from BTG. Mr. Duarte, you may proceed.
Good morning. Good to talk to you. Two questions. First, I would like to hear from you your understanding of the soybean origination, which has been coming strong in the quarter. Typically, that suggests that your commercial platform is being highly successful, but I would like to hear, to have some more color on that. Also why, having had originated 1.4 million or traded 1.4 million tons of soybean in the first half, why are you still maintaining the guidance, the level of 1.7?
That seems to be slightly low when you think about the whole year. A second question, talking about the ethanol plants. I think a question we all have, given the location of the plant, a different, if you will, region of Mato Grosso, and given that you are now running full steam, I would like to hear from you two things. Number one, what kind of price basis for corn should they be looking at, or origination price, BRLs per bag? What kind of price for ethanol, anhydrous or hydrated? What kind of ethanol prices, premium or discount, in terms of CEPEA, are you getting in these first weeks of operation of the plant? Thank you.
Thank you, Thiago. Mr. Augusto, can you start?
Okay. Well, thank you, Thiago, for your question.
About your first point, about soybean volumes being smaller and the guidance that we have announced for the full year and a smaller portion reserved for the second half, that has to do with something that Cristiano mentioned before, an increase of demand on the part of the plants. Our decision around that soybean has to do with the supply of expanded plants. In addition to that, there is the import scenario in Brazil. Looking at Rio Grande do Sul also, even with a better crop year than previously, still Rio Grande has increased crushing, both by 3tentos and other plants, other factories in the region. We shouldn't see an increase in our areas in export volumes. Along the same lines, the U.S. is now coming with a product in the same global flow of exports. Of course, we're still assessing how that will unfold.
We have to think about the U.S. and China relationship, but not only 3tentos, but we will see a slowdown in exports of soybeans. It's a very dynamic scenario, as you know, so it also will depend on geopolitical unfoldings. As for ethanol, João, would you like to complement?
No, I think origination, the yearly guidance is okay. We have sped up in the first half because of new factories, soybean availability being high, and then in the second half is just a consequence of having lower inventories that will be allocated to the industries. Okay. As for ethanol, or to the whole ethanol complex, if you will, I think this is the third corn crop that we plant or that we work with in the Araguaia Valley. So it's very similar what we had along the 163 highway. There are some mismatches.
Sometimes 163 is a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower when comparing to the valley, the Araguaia Valley, but they are both similar scenarios when we talk about corn origination. As for ethanol, the ethanol trading, we put together contracts with anhydrous ethanol with premiums within the historical levels for the past few years, what we've been doing. For the hydrated version, we have concentrated on the spot market, especially in the northern regions, closer to the plants, in Pará, Tocantins, Maranhão. Those are the main areas for that right now.
Thank you.
Our next question from Gabriel Baja from Citi. Mr. Baja, you may proceed.
Hello, thank you for taking my questions.
His sound quality is chopping.
The question seems to be, when we look at the slightly higher leverage, it is a quarter that carries over a bit more inventory that is expected, but still leverage is higher. When you ask for a waiver to the end of the year, it seems that that leverage could remain high for the rest of the year, unlike what we expected. I would like to understand, first and foremost, in your view, what should we expect in terms of leverage for the end of the year? When do you expect to reach more comfortable levels below 2 times or closer to 1.5 x? When will that happen? That is number one. Number two, a follow-up on the CapEx question. You have the new plant. The market is a bit more difficult. If you could perhaps delay the plant or revisit the investment plan.
The final question, in the input pillar, we have seen a similar scenario before in 2022 with the fertilizer prices going up.
His connection is quite choppy. The question is not understandable. He is trying to do a comparison between the fertilizer market in 2022 and 2026. Taking the war into account and so on.
Okay, Baja. Your connection was quite choppy, so we did not get all the questions in full, but you can confirm later Cristiano, if you could address the
I heard you, Baja. We heard you. Or part of it anyway. In terms of the leverage, that ask for the waiver to the end of the year is more methodological than risk-based. If you look at our DF, you will see that our financial statements, 50% of our numbers come from the hedging.
If I were to work with the same metric we had in the contract, I would be out of the curve for the coming quarter. We have rewritten the metric, and this is an important point, Baja. We have already tried to rewrite the metric along with the creditors, converging to what the norm will be under IFRS 18. When the IFRS 18 comes into place, all those hedgings will be part of the definition of operating results or EBITDA. This is an accounting method issue. We are one of the companies that have the highest hedge vis-à-vis results as a results generator. We made a convergence, if you will. We do not have a definition for the IFRS 18, but we need also to internally make some adjustments in the way we account for.
But until then, we will maintain the metric that the market has been using. Also, Baja, speaking with equity people, when we talk to credit people, actually, the credit people look at what we have in terms of growing inventory. It is an accounting inventory, but it is also a very net asset. I will repeat the number, BRL 3.2 billion, including grains and finalized products, meal, oil, and biodiesel. That is a very substantial figure. If you remove from our net debt BRL 3.2 billion, that is the size of our inventory. That is a different way to look at the company's liquidity level. We understand that if we are able to follow on that track, we will be in a place where we will have leverage levels of 1.5x, maybe before 2x. It depends on delivering a better EBITDA in the second half than last year.
We do have that in the horizon. Also follow on our natural momentum of reducing inventories, transforming that into cash. It is a lot of works, a big challenge, but it is a clear ask. The ask for the waiver was not mainly based on risk, but on a methodological change. In the past three quarters, most of the result was linked to the hedge. That is the dynamic just for you to understand.
The other two questions I mentioned was about retention. If you could replan the CapEx given the slightly more challenging scenario, would it make sense for you to revisit the timeline of the project? As for inputs, 2022 presented a similar scenario with fertilizer prices going up and the war. Can we expect the same for this year? Especially with the war. How similar is the scenario now to 2022?
I think we got it now. As a complement to the leverage question, we are extremely reassured and safe about our deleveraging process. As Cristiano mentioned, 3.2 today, which is our net debt, is 100% covered by very high liquidity inventories. We saw that the track record over 40%, it could be more conservative, to be safe, 35%. But historically, around 40% becomes cash in the second half of that inventory. Also important to mention is that we have a plant, a CapEx of BRL 1.5 billion, which has not yet returned to the EBITDA. So those two factors combined will bring some. Of course, the leverage level is still there. We are paying attention to that leverage level and working hard to monitor that, but it provides some level of safety that the situation is totally under control.
As for redemption, Baja, we are monitoring redemption, those two aspects. Both the deleveraging pace, which is important for us to carry on, just as the profitability levels, ethanol prices and so on, so that we can confirm our profitability levels. For now, we have maintained those numbers, but we are keeping a close eye on those movements. We have a plan in place to invest by 2027 and throughout 2028, and that may be adjusted in terms of timeline for the investments, but then it will depend on upcoming situations. As for the inputs question, the market as we see it, at least for us, the market has not created large inventories. I think because of, in other periods, we saw that happen, going up and going down and perhaps sometimes the war is over sooner than later. Not the case now, perhaps.
Companies have not increased inventories now, especially urea, which is the product that saw the highest variation. So I do not see the same thing today as we had in 2022. We have not put together inventories at high levels, price levels. Not us.
Thank you.
We now close the Q&A session, and I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. João Marcelo Dumoncel for his final comments. Over to you, Mr. Dumoncel.
I would like to thank you once again for your attention, for your questions, for your interest. We continue available, sell side, buy side analysts. As it was mentioned repeatedly here, this has been a challenging quarter for the company. We try to put it into perspective, taking into account the whole semester.
We try to be as transparent as possible in terms of explaining the main offenders of the numbers, the leverage levels, and once again, the structure we have put together, the operating conditions, and especially our thesis remain. We consider that to be quite solid, quite robust. We continue to be quite confident and surely one challenging quarter will not change our execution track record, our results track record, and especially our outlook for the future. We count on you, and we remain available, as I said, to clarify or answer questions or to bring light to the points that you need on. Thank you once again, and have a nice day, everyone.
3tentos video conference to discuss Q2 results is now over. The IR department remains available for questions or comments you may have. Thank you once again, and have a nice day, everyone.