Liffe July cocoa ended 3 pounds lower at 1,871 pounds a tonne on Friday as the resumption of Ivory Coast exports weighed. Liffe August white sugar closes $0.70 higher at $602.80 a tonne. Market supported by tight prompt Brazilian supplies of raw sugar. Liffe July robusta coffee ended $16 higher at $2,528 a tonne as supplies from Vietnam slow.
Cocoa futures edged lower, with a focus on the flow of exports from top producer Ivory Coast after a political crisis. Raw sugar climbed over 2 percent, underpinned by tight new-crop availability from Brazil as mills maximised the crush of cane into ethanol. Sugar output in Brazil's centre-south in 2011/12 through May 1 fell 69 percent from a year ago as rains through mid-April hindered cane harvesting and mills prioritised ethanol production, data from the sugar cane industry association Unica showed on Thursday.
"The recent Unica figures were widely read as potential for a strong tail end to the crop," said Thomas Kujawa of brokerage Sucden Financial. An improving global supply outlook limited gains as the global sugar balance was expected to shift into surplus.
Sugar merchant Czarnikow forecast a global sugar surplus in 2011/12 as production surges, while the International Sugar Organisation (ISO) forecast the 2011/12 surplus may exceed 3 million tonnes. Producers including Thailand, Pakistan and Brazil are expected to see increased output on the previous year. Coffee prices eased, steadying after Thursday's close higher broke the downtrend for arabicas.
"The current weakness in coffee is a great buying opportunity," said Kona Haque, a commodity strategist at Macquarie Bank. Brazil, the world's top coffee producer, has begun harvesting what is expected to be its best off-year harvest on record. "This Brazilian arabica crop will not be enough to meet needs, and we're already seeing Central American exports easing off. We're really only looking at Brazil now for big supplies," Haque said.
ICE cocoa prices were also slightly lower, consolidating inside their recent range, after temporarily dipping below the range on Thursday. The release of stocks from Ivory Coast after a political crisis, combined with a large global surplus expected in 2010/11, weighed on near term prices.
"I'm still bearish in the short term, but I think as we approach the middle of the third quarter, prices are going to start edging up again because I'm expecting a much tighter supply/demand balance for 2011/12 ... nothing like the surplus we saw this year," Macquarie's Haque said. More than 90 percent of Ivory Coast's stockpiled cocoa has retained its quality despite being stuck in warehouses for over three months during a violent political standoff, exporters said on Friday.
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