Brazil’s Copersucar, the world’s largest sugar merchant, expects output of the sweetener to fall by 5 million tonnes in the new center-south cane crop that starts in April, as mills earmark more cane to ethanol production instead. Copersucar said mills in center-south should allocate only 41.5 percent of cane to sugar production in the 2018/19 crop, compared with last year’s 46.5 percent, as they move to increase ethanol output by 1.5 billion liters. Brazilian mills are giving preference to ethanol production over the sweetener to take advantage of good prices and strong local demand. Ethanol is enjoying a large price gap compared with gasoline, leading owners of flex fuel cars to opt for the biofuel at pumps. Copersucar projects 2018/19 center-south sugar output at 31 million tonnes, 5 million tonnes less than in the previous season. It sees ethanol production at 27.5 billion liters, 1.5 billion liters more than last year.