Arabica coffee futures prices jumped 4 percent on Friday after Brazil's government said it will increase loans to farmers, but the market was down 19.6 percent for the first quarter due to previous selling in reaction to forecasts for a big Brazilian crop and heavy speculative selling.
Cocoa futures edged lower but made quarterly gains of more than 5 percent, while ICE raw sugar edged up, underpinned by concerns over the impact on the next Brazilian harvest of prolonged dry weather. The sweetener closed the quarter up 6.05 percent.
May arabicas on ICE closed up 6 cents, or 3.4 percent, at $1.8245 per lb, above a 17-month low of $1.7445 touched on March 22. Brazil plans to ratchet up the amount of credit it offers coffee producers to stock beans and defer sales, the agriculture ministry's top coffee official said Thursday, a measure aimed at preventing further dramatic falls in prices ahead of the large upcoming harvest. "The news out of Brazil, as far as the financing and possible stock retention, are both being cited as one of the reasons New York is going up today," said one US coffee dealer.
Arabica futures are the second-weakest performer on the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, next to natural gas. ICE second-month arabicas closed the first quarter of 2012 down 19.6 percent, weighed by expectations of a big crop in top producer Brazil and heavy technical selling. Speculators held the biggest net short position by March 20, in at least six years, as this group of traders bet the market would fall more.
Benchmark Liffe May robusta coffee futures closed down $15 at $2,026 per tonne. The second-position contract finished the quarter up 12 percent. Cocoa futures on ICE turned lower, with May closing down $4 at $2,219 a tonne. The spot contract finished the first quarter of 2012 up 5.2 percent. ICE Futures US cocoa stocks exceeded 5.39 million bags on March 29, the highest level on record, ICE data showed.
London May cocoa inched down 1 pound to finish at 1,462 pounds per tonne. The spot contract closed the quarter up 5.9 percent. May raw sugar on ICE rose 0.11 cent to close at 24.71 cents per lb, with the spot contract finishing the first quarter up 6.05 percent. London May white sugar futures rose $9.50, or 1.5 percent, to close at $643.60 per tonne. The spot contract climbed 6.9 percent on the quarter.
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