"We are now looking more in Brazil," he said on the sidelines of a major sugar conference in Dubai.

"If I can find cheap assets yes (there may be deals) but I'm not in a rush to buy."

De Andrade said the company performed well in 2018, in sugar, coffee and cotton, the three commodities he oversees, boosted by a scaling back of trading teams.

"When you have too many traders and when traders don't trade they don't cover the cost and you lose money but in our case our team is smaller and leaner and we don't have this pressure and we can wait (for the best opportunities)," he said.

He said the company also took less risks.

"When we took a risk we only took a risk where we had a very good view," he said.