London front-month white sugar futures ended 2010 up 9 percent year-on-year at $777.50 per tonne on Friday, compared with a close of $710.20 per tonne on December 31, 2009. Sugar markets are underpinned by tight near-term availability as India, the world's second-largest producer after Brazil, looked poised to permit limited exports in 2011.
Adverse weather in key producing countries such as Brazil and Australia, which has suffered prolonged rainfall, has eroded supply prospects. "There is a considerable degree of uncertainty over the extent of the crop in India," said Alan Wood, managing director of London-based merchant Czarnikow.
"There is a very tight sugar flow into the first quarter leading up to the March expiry of ICE raw sugar (on February 28). There is every chance that we will see new price highs in 2011." Friday was a half-day on the London soft commodities markets as 2010 wrapped up. They will reopen on Tuesday, January 4, for the first trading session of 2011.
London second-month cocoa futures ended 2010 down 11 percent year-on-year at 2,029 pounds per tonne on Friday, compared with a close of 2,271 pounds on December, 31, 2009. "It came back with a little bit of a bite towards the close, with maybe some speculative buying, maybe some year-end window dressing, which lifted up values," a London cocoa dealer said.
Dealers said that if the strife in Ivory Coast escalates, they saw a risk that prices could re-test a four-month high in ICE cocoa futures of $3,140 a tonne touched on December 7, although West African new-crop supplies were ample. "This market is looking at the headlines every day, seeing what is going to happen in Ivory Coast," said Keith Flury, a senior commodity analyst with Rabobank.
J. Peter Pham, an African security adviser, told Reuters, "Although the ports are currently operating, that might change; even if it doesn't, prices may moderate as the larger-than-expected crop comes to market." London second-month robusta coffee futures rose on quality concerns in top producer Vietnam as the delayed harvest drew to a close. London second-month robusta coffee futures ended 2010 up 57 percent year-on-year at $2,097 per tonne on Friday, compared with a close of $1,332 per tonne on December 31, 2009.
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