Noble Group, Asia’s biggest commodities trader, said on Monday it would pay US$950 million ($1.25 billion) for two Brazilian cane mills, raising its crushing capacity by 84% in the world’s largest sugar exporter.

The Singapore-listed company already has two mills in Brazil, where it operates as a major sugar trader. The construction of one of them has just been completed.

Noble (NOBG.SI) and other agribusiness giants including Bunge (BG.N), Cargill and, more recently, Glencore (GLEN.UL) have made the jump from sugar trading to physical production, eyeing bright long-term prospects for the sector.

“The acquisition of Cerradinho will propel the group into the top tier of sugar cane milling companies globally, taking the combined annual potential crushing capacity that Noble will control to 17.5 million tonnes,” the firm said in a statement.

The two mills, which are being purchased from Brazilian sugar and ethanol group Cerradinho, are located in Sao Paulo state, which accounts for 60% of Brazil’s cane crop.

Catanduva has a nominal annual cane crushing capacity of 4.6 million tonnes while Potirendaba crushes 3.4 million tonnes per year. The two mills will have combined production of up to 600,000 tonnes of sugar, 300,000 cubic meters of ethanol and supply over 300,000 megawatt hours of electricity to the grid.

Catanduva also has a sugar refinery.

“The physical proximity of the four mills that Noble will own after this acquisition offers significant economies of scale,” the company said.