Specifications translated approximately
A moisture percentage, a grade or a defect tolerance is a contractual commitment. An approximate rendering in the contract and a precise one in the lab report is a dispute.
Industry
Export documentation is read by someone who can refuse the shipment.
Agribusiness language work has a hard edge: certificates and trade documents are checked by authorities who either accept them or do not. And the visits that close the deals happen in fields, plants and cold storage, not in meeting rooms.
Agribusiness
What we support
STIB supports agribusiness exporters, cooperatives and their international partners with technical translation and on-the-ground interpreting — the documentation that moves a shipment and the visits that decide whether it will be ordered again.
The sector combines two very different demands. Documentation is formulaic and unforgiving, because inspection authorities compare it against a template. Interpreting is the opposite: mobile, informal, and often outdoors, where rapport matters as much as precision.
What we translate and interpret
- Phytosanitary and sanitary certificates — documents checked against a prescribed form by the receiving authority
- Export contracts and trade documentation — incoterms, quality specifications and delivery terms with commercial consequences
- Quality and lab reports — analytical results that a buyer's own laboratory will replicate
- Compliance documentation — traceability, certification schemes and audit records
- Buyer delegation interpreting — farm, plant and warehouse visits with international buyers
- Shipping and cargo documents — the paperwork that follows the cargo and has to match it exactly
Failure modes
Where language actually fails in this sector
Not theory — these are the recurring ways a language workstream costs a project time.
Certificate wording improvised
Official certificates follow prescribed wording. Anything rewritten for clarity risks rejection at the border, where nobody will call to discuss it.
Farm visits treated as meetings
Buyer visits happen while walking through fields and cold rooms. The interpreting is consecutive and mobile, and the vocabulary is agronomic before it is commercial.
Live settings
Where we interpret in this sector
Buyer and importer delegations
Multi-day programmes across farms, processing plants and ports, usually with one escort interpreter throughout.
Certification and third-party audits
Consecutive interpreting during audits where an auditor is reading records and asking follow-ups.
Trade fairs and matchmaking sessions
Short, repeated conversations where the interpreter is effectively part of the commercial team.
Regulatory context
Bodies and frameworks in play
Export documentation and inspections in this sector regularly involve the following authorities.
MAPA
Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, responsible for phytosanitary and sanitary certification for export.
USDA / APHIS
The United States Department of Agriculture and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, on the receiving side of many shipments.
ANVISA
Brazil's health regulatory agency, which also oversees food safety matters.
Straight answers
Agribusiness: questions we are asked
Do you translate phytosanitary certificates?
Yes, and they are treated as form-bound documents rather than free text: the prescribed wording is preserved, because the receiving authority compares the document against a template rather than reading it for meaning.
Can you provide an interpreter for a buyer delegation visiting farms and plants?
Yes. These are escort interpreting assignments — the interpreter travels with the group across the whole programme, works consecutively while walking, and carries the agronomic and commercial vocabulary from the first visit to the last.
How are technical specifications handled between the contract and the lab report?
From one glossary. Grades, tolerances and analytical parameters are fixed once and used identically in the contract, the specification sheet and the reports, so the documents cannot contradict each other.
Which languages are most requested in agribusiness work?
Portuguese with English is the core pair, with Mandarin and Spanish frequently added for buyer delegations. STIB's network covers more than 40 languages with over 80 certified interpreters.
Do you work at trade fairs and matchmaking events?
Yes. These are short, high-volume conversations, and the practical planning question is how many interpreters the stand needs to avoid a queue rather than how long each conversation lasts.
Other sectors
We also work in
Tell us what is on the table.
The documents, the meeting, the dates and the languages. You get a scoped proposal from the team that will run the assignment.