Forget Bitcoin. Toyota is now accepting a much older form of currency from customers in Brazil.
The Toyota Barter program lets farmers trade soybeans or corn for a Hilux pickup, Corolla Cross crossover or SW4 SUV. It's an effort to appeal more to the agribusiness sector, which currently accounts for 16 percent of the brand's direct sales in Brazil.
Toyota began piloting the crop exchange program in 2019 and this month formally rolled it out through dealerships in nine states of Brazil, which is the world's largest soybean producer.
"It is the first sales channel in Brazil to accept grain when buying a car," Jose Luis Rincon Bruno, direct sales manager of Toyota Brazil, said in a statement translated from Portuguese. "Now, we have the opportunity to make this facility official for agribusiness and expand Toyota's presence and make an important contribution to this which is one of the main economic sectors in our country."
