Robusta coffee futures on ICE fell to a more than three-year low on Thursday as the market pulled into line with weak arabica coffee prices, while raw sugar declined despite bullish production data from Brazil. July robusta coffee settled down $1, or 0.07 percent, at $1,390 per tonne, after dipping to a low of $1,369, the weakest for the second position since March 2016.
The arabica market led the decline last week and now robusta was catching up, dealers said. Coffee exports from Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, are forecast to fall to around 2 million bags in April from 2.87 million bags last month, traders said, with farmers reluctant to sell at low prices.
A massive harvest of both robusta and arabica in Brazil last year and a favorable outlook for this year's crop continues to weigh on the coffee market. July arabica coffee settled up 1 cent, or 1.1 percent, at 93.35 cents per lb.
Prices were underpinned by a slight recovery in the value of the Brazilian currency, which earlier hit its weakest against the US dollar in nearly a month. July raw sugar settled down 0.21 cent, or 1.6 percent, at 12.69 cents per lb, still within its recent 12.50-13 cent range.
The market received some support from data indicating that the Brazilian sugar harvest was off to a slow start, dealers said. Sugar production in Brazil's center-south region fell 52 percent to 340,000 tonnes in the first two weeks of the new season compared to the same period in the previous crop, industry group Unica said.
Center-south production was below market expectations, with analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts pegging it at 436,000 tonnes. Prices may have been held back by concerns about the possibility of undesirable Central American sugar appearing on the tape, said one US trader.
August white sugar settled down 20 cents, or nearly 0.1 percent, at $340.10 per tonne. July New York cocoa settled up $37, or 1.7 percent, at $2,285 per tonne, following four consecutive days of declines. Its ability to hold above $2,245, the 62 percent retracement of the March 21 low and April 11 high, was a constructive signal, said one US trader.
July London cocoa settled up 29 pounds, or 1.7 percent, at 1,735 pounds per tonne, erasing the previous session's losses. Sterling slid to its weakest against the US dollar in about 10 weeks, which added to gains in London, dealers said.
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