Liffe coffee lower

Liffe September robusta coffee ended $83 lower at $2,354 a tonne on Monday. Prices dragged down by a sharp setback in ICE arabica coffee with favourable crop weather in Brazil combining with overall weakness in commodity markets to fuel the fall.
Liffe August white sugar ended $0.40 lower at $817.90 a tonne. Uncertainty about the size of the crop in top producer Brazil helped to temper the impact of a broad pullback in commodity markets. Liffe September cocoa ended 11 pounds lower at 1,933 pounds a tonne, tracking losses in oil and many other commodity markets.
Cocoa and coffee prices also eased as a fall in Chinese crude imports signalled a slowdown in demand and triggered risk aversion. "There is concern again of falling demand in the general world economy this morning as China apparently has recent relatively low levels of commodity importing, particularly oil, which is at the lowest levels for a year," said Thomas Kujawa of brokerage Sucden Financial.
"So far today all commodities are under pressure." Uncertainty over the size of top producer Brazil's cane crush supported the market, helping the market to rally around 7 percent higher last week.
"We're now entirely dependent on the northern hemisphere crop to realise the 2011/12 surplus as southern hemisphere production is falling short of expectations following concerns about the crop in Brazil," Peter de Klerk, senior analyst with Czarnikow said. Cocoa futures were also lower, consolidating after choppy trade last week as questions remained over the outlook for top producer Ivory Coast's 2011/12 production following months of unrest which halted exports and saw farmers leave their farms untended earlier this year.
"Everybody is expecting a (global) surplus this year followed by a small deficit next year," a London-based broker said. However, "the jury is out" on exactly what impact the unrest in Ivory Coast will be on 2011/12 cocoa output, added the broker. "There's a lot of supply coming in, and some stuff is still unsold, so the market could dip lower," a European dealer said. "The open interest should drop substantially in the next few days, I imagine the delivery will be small," said the broker.
Arabica coffee prices edged lower as weather in Brazil was favourable for harvest progress and development of the 2011/12 crop, with no sign of frost. The stronger dollar weighed on prices and robusta was tracking losses on the arabica market, a London-based broker said. Worries over global growth added to demand for perceived safe-haven currencies such as the Swiss franc and the US dollar, after a disappointing US employment report and data showing rising inflation in China spooked investors.