Raw sugar at four-week high as rain delays Brazil harvest

Raw sugar futures on ICE rose to a four-week high on Monday as recent rain delays to the harvest in top producer Brazil spurred buying of the nearby contracts. ICE July raw sugar settled up 0.13 cent, or 0.79 percent, at 16.51 cents per lb after peaking at 16.59 cents, the highest since April 24 and hitting the 50-day moving average.
"There are niggling concerns regarding the CS (central-south) Brazil sugar industry's ability to harvest all the available sugar cane should rain delays limit the number of days during which mechanical harvesting can operate," Tropical Research Services said in a market note. "Recent heavy rains in the Center-South have stalled early cane harvesting while reducing the overall quality of the crop. Continued showers this week will keep harvesting slow as wetness has developed in southern portions of the belt," said meteorologist MDA Information Systems in a report.
China said it will add an extra duty on out-of-quota sugar imports for the next three years, in the first ruling to come out of a months-long anti-dumping probe. Brazil's cane industry group, Unica, forecast the country's sugar exports to China could fall by 800,000 tonnes in the next 12 months due to the extra tariff in China.
August white sugar settled up $2.30, or 0.50 percent, at $466.90 per tonne. ICE July arabica coffee settled down 1.5 cent, or 1.14 percent, at $1.306 per lb, weighed down partly by a further weakening in Brazil's currency. "The big shorts in New York are the commercials who apparently are finally closing short positions, at least in part as they close positions on coffee bought at higher prices. They are noted as buying futures at this time, and producers are said to be selling in deferred months," said Jack Scoville, vice president with Price Futures Group in Chicago.
July robusta coffee settled down $52, or 2.6 percent, at $1,925 per tonne. The coffee industry is bracing for tight supplies from Colombia, the world's biggest grower of high-quality arabica, as a strike in the port of Buenaventura delays shipments at a time when heavy rains have already slowed the harvest. July London cocoa settled up 3 pounds, or 0.2 percent, at 1,566 pounds per tonne, after falling 2.6 percent on Friday. July New York cocoa settled up $7, or 0.4 percent, at $2,035 per tonne.