LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE hit a one-month high on Thursday as energy prices soared after Russia’s attack on Ukraine exacerbated concerns about disruptions to global oil and gas supplies.
Rising energy prices can prompt cane mills in top producer Brazil to divert production from sugar to ethanol, a cane-based biofuel, though dealers noted that Brazil is for now keeping a tight lid on gasoline and thereby on ethanol prices.
SUGAR
March raw sugar rose 1% to 18.72 cents per lb at 1246 GMT, having earlier hit its highest since late January at 18.87 cents.
Brent crude oil prices rose above $105 a barrel for the first time since 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea in the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.
Dealers said there was no panic buying as yet in sugar markets and it will take some time before rising energy prices force Brazil’s government to let local gasoline prices rise - an unpopular move in an election year.
They added that sugar prices are being capped by ever improving harvest prospects in India, another top producer.
May white sugar rose 1.4% to $502.60 a tonne.
COFFEE
May arabica coffee fell 1% to $2.4505 per lb, having earlier hit its lowest since Feb. 7 at $2.4090.
Dealers said coffee and cocoa, prices of which are not directly tied to energy prices, are under pressure from fears that the Russia-Ukraine conflict will crimp global growth and demand for the beans.
May robusta coffee fell 1.4% to $2,202 a tonne.
Discounts for Vietnamese coffee narrowed this week in thin trade amid high gasoline prices and shipping rates, while discounts rose in Indonesia as some exporters released remaining beans from the last harvest, traders said.
COCOA
May London cocoa fell 2% to 1,718 pounds a tonne, heading back towards a six-week low hit on Tuesday.
May New York cocoa fell 2.3% to $2,602 a tonne.
Chocolate major Mondelez will close its plants in Ukraine if the the situation with Russia becomes “too dangerous”, Chief Executive Dirk Van de Put told Reuters on Wednesday.
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