Brazil’s Farmers Dump Sugar for Soy as Trade War Boosts Chinese Demand

Brazil's Holambra farmer cooperative is seen, where expansion of grains storage capacity led to scrap a contract with a sugar mill for cane planting in Itajai, Sao Paulo state, Brazil Apr. 1, 2018. REUTERS/Marcelo Rodrigues Teixeira

ITAÍ, Brazil—Last year, Brazilian farmer Gustavo Lopes sized up his sugarcane plantation against his soybean fields.

He looked at global trends, including rising U.S.-China trade tensions and a stubborn sugar-market glut. Then he tore up the last of his cane fields and ditched a decades-old supply contract with a local sugar mill.