New York cocoa, raw sugar move higher

New York cocoa futures on ICE rose on Tuesday, supported by a weaker dollar, while raw sugar prices also edged higher. March New York cocoa was up $39, or 2 percent, at $1,985 a tonne by 1416 GMT, after climbing to $1,986. March London cocoa was up 13 pounds, or 1 percent, to 1,383 pounds a tonne.
Dealers said a weaker dollar was boosting the New York contract. A stronger British pound was also pressuring London prices, thus improving the arbitrage and inspiring further buying in New York. Ivory Coast will uproot 300,000 hectares of cocoa infected by swollen shoot over the next three years, a senior source at the Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) told Reuters on Tuesday.
The focus remains on the continued strong pace of port arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast and expectations for a global surplus in the 2017/18 season. "Arrivals are still fairly robust," said one dealer. "We're obviously getting towards a time when you expect some tapering off. But that's not necessarily happening yet."
Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Council (CCC) last week resold 80,000 tonnes' worth of cocoa export contracts that were at risk of default, exporters and a senior source at the marketing board said on Tuesday. There has been a surge of West African cocoa beans being shipped to the United States, as exporters rush to capture an unusual premium that has emerged in the New York futures market.
March raw sugar rose 0.03 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 13.70 cents per lb, after touching 13.73 cents, its highest in almost two weeks. The market was correcting after a recent sell-off, although gains were capped by a looming global surplus and the potential for producer selling.
March white sugar fell $0.50, or 0.14 percent, to $360.90 per tonne. Pakistan has hiked the amount of sugar eligible for export subsidies to 2 million tonnes from 500,000 tonnes, in a bid to reduce excess domestic supplies. March arabica coffee fell 0.70 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $1.2425 per lb.
"The Brazilian 2017/18 crop has largely completed its flowering phase," BMI Research said in a note. "So far, despite previous La Nina warnings, weather appears to have been favourable." March robusta coffee fell $10, or 0.6 percent, to $1,747 a tonne.