Arabica coffee slides, sugar eases near multi-year lows

Arabica coffee slid around 5 percent on long liquidation on Friday, under pressure from a weakening Brazilian currency, while sugar eased near multi-year lows as dealers awaited Brazilian cane data expected to show a brisk crush. Arabica coffee futures dropped sharply below last week's three-month peak, while robusta coffee also fell, but a reluctance to sell beans by holders of coffee in Vietnam limited the downside in prices.
December arabica was down 6.4 cents, or 4.8 percent, at $1.2605 per lb at 1522 GMT, having earlier slid around 5 percent to a session low of $1.2585 per lb, a 2-1/2-week trough, well below the three-month peak of $1.4260 touched on August 14. "It's fund selling, long liquidation," a London-based broker said.
A weakening Brazilian real triggered selling, boosting local currency returns from dollar-based arabica sales. Robusta coffee futures followed arabicas lower. September robusta coffee traded down $37, or 2.3 percent, at $1,602 per tonne. White sugar futures dipped but remained above Thursday's 6-1/2 year low, while raw sugar also eased, trading above a seven-year trough hit earlier this month in a market weighed down by huge inventories in India and Thailand.
Traders said they expected cane data to be issued by Brazilian industry group Unica later on Friday, to show a rapid crush in centre-south Brazil. "We have the Unica report out later this afternoon for the first half of August and expectations are of a possible 'traffic stopper' set of statistics as the crushing weather has been pretty much perfect for cane crushing," said Thomas Kujawa, co-head of the softs desk at Sucden Financial Sugar. Data provider Platts Kingsman said it expected a cane crush of 47.43 million tonnes.
October white sugar traded down $1.80, or 0.5 percent, at $331.80 a tonne, after touching a 6-1/2 year low of $329.00 on Thursday. October raw sugar futures were down 0.13 cents, or 1.2 percent, at 10.49 cents a lb, within sight of the seven-year low of 10.37 cents a lb touched on August 10. New York and London cocoa markets fell on technically driven selling but were underpinned by concerns over dryness in parts of top growers Ivory Coast and Ghana. New York December cocoa was down $33, or 1.1 percent, at $3,102 a tonne, while London December cocoa traded down 18 pounds, or 0.9 percent, at 2,064 pounds.