Cocoa futures on ICE fell on Monday, as expectations of a bigger-than-expected crop from key producing region West Africa pressured prices despite concerns about crop disease in top producer Ivory Coast. Coffee and sugar prices were firm, with robusta futures at a two-year peak. December New York cocoa settled down $28, or 1 percent, at $2,690 per tonne, but held above last week's three-year low. Total open interest fell by more than 10,000 contracts to 253,241 contracts on Friday, after climbing for 16 straight sessions to a record 263,579 lots on Thursday, exchange data showed.
"I think the market is in general agreement that the crops in West Africa are very good," Rabobank analyst Carlos Mera said. "I think the risk of crops being bigger than expected is higher than that of it being lower than expected. The mood in the market is neutral to bearish."
March London cocoa settled down 19 pounds, or 0.9 percent, at 2,186 pounds per tonne. Coffee futures turned higher on concern about below-normal rainfall in top grower Brazil, where rains are needed to promote flowering, traders said. "Talk of irregular rains in Brazil that could hurt flowering created buying interest," said Jack Scoville, vice president with PRICE Futures Group in Chicago. January robusta coffee settled up $35, or 1.7 percent, at $2,109 per tonne, after rising to $2,115, the highest on a continuation chart since October 2014.
December arabica coffee settled up 1.7 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $1.571 per lb. Total open interest rose for the sixth straight day on Friday to 191,471 lots, the highest since June 6, ICE data showed. "Showers over the weekend led to only minor improvements in soil moisture across southern coffee areas and light showers later this week should not significantly improve conditions either," said meteorologist MDA Information Services.
"Dry weather in northern areas over the next 10 days will allow soil moisture to decline again, stressing coffee flowering." In sugar, March raws settled up 0.25 cent, or 1.1 percent, at 23.16 cents per lb. Dealers said expectations that top consumer India would import sugar to meet a production deficit were boosting prices of white sugar, lifting the December contract's premium over March to a 3-1/2-month high at $3.80, after a meeting between the Indian government and cane commissioners from sugar producing regions. December white sugar settled up $10.70, or 1.8 percent, at $604.30 per tonne.
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