Cargill Bets on Cheap Corn in Brazil to Boost Ethanol Output

Agricultural giant Cargill Inc. plans to operate its jointly owned corn-ethanol plant in Brazil at full capacity for the first time next year, the latest sign of how the country’s domestic biofuel market is rebounding.

The company will process 20 percent more grain at the factory in Goias state in 2018, according to Ronaldo Bezerra, managing director of sugar and ethanol in Brazil. He doesn’t see the delays to soybean seeding disrupting the nation’s corn crop, meaning there should be an abundant harvest next year.

“Farmers still have a window to plant and the weather has been good,” Bezerra ...