LONDON: Raw sugar futures on the ICE exchange recovered from a 2-1/2 year low on Wednesday, though prospects for improved supplies kept gains in check, while cocoa continued to drift lower.
Raw sugar was up 0.6% at 17.62 cents per lb by 1200 GMT, having earlier matched Tuesday’s 2-1/2 year low at 17.51 cents, while white sugar was flat at $490.10 a ton. India is likely to see above-average monsoon rains for the second straight year in 2025, the government said.
Dealers noted that rains should allow the world’s No. 2 sugar producer to increase sugar exports. Sugar production in top producer Brazil’s centre-south region was nearly 10% higher than a year earlier in the second half of March as mills allocated more cane to sugar production.
Consultancy Safras & Mercado said the increased allocation to sugar came about as sugar stocks in Brazil’s center-south were about 70% lower than average in the first quarter.
Dealers said the market meanwhile remains concerned a trade war between the US and China could drag the world’s two largest economies into a recession that would hurt demand for commodities including sugar.
Arabica coffee futures slipped 0.3% to $3.6590 per lb, having lost 2.7% last week amid tariff-related recession fears, while robusta coffee futures fell 0.3% to $5,326 a metric ton.
Dealers said robusta is being boosted by reports of sharply lower robusta production out of Brazil, the world’s second largest grower of the instant coffee ingredient.
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