ICE arabica coffee steadied on Friday after setting a new one-year peak as funds continued to cover their short positions amid a dearth of selling from top producer Brazil, while raw sugar hit a fresh nine-month high.
March arabica coffee was down 0.5 cents, or 0.4%, at $1.2435 per lb at 1519 GMT after rising to a peak of $1.2725, its highest since October last year.
"Brazilians are not selling as much anymore, they seem to have done a lot of it already. They're either bullish and waiting for the price to go higher or they feel they have fixed enough for now," said Kona Haque, head of research at ED&F Man.
A shortage of high-quality arabica coffee has boosted spot prices in Central America, Colombia and Brazil, catching speculators who have largely bet on falling futures prices by surprise.
The quality coffee shortage has sparked a scramble for ICE-certified stocks, which have fallen from 2.5 million bags in March to 2.1 million.
March robusta coffee fell $2, or 0.2%, to $1,399 per tonne.
There has been a slowdown in farmer-selling in Vietnam following the recent retreat in robusta prices from a 3-1/2 month high of $1,447 a tonne set on Nov. 26.
March raw sugar was up 0.07 cents, or 0.5%, at 13.15 cents per lb after rising to a peak of 13.19 cents, the highest since late February.
Dealers said funds continue to cover net short positions amid tightening supplies, adding that momentum remained to the upside even if producer-selling of excess stocks would slow the advance.
Producer-selling currently sits above 13.18 cents, they said.
A global sugar deficit is widely forecast for the current 2019/20 season and there are some signs there could also be a deficit in 2020/21.
Associated British Foods stuck to its forecast for earnings growth in its 2019-20 year, with anticipated progress in its sugar and grocery businesses.
March white sugar rose $2.00, or 0.6%, to $347.30 a tonne.
March New York cocoa was up $21, or 0.8%, at $2,601 a tonne, with the market regaining some ground lost after its slide to three-week lows on Monday.
Ivorian cocoa farmers have grown more concerned about the 2019/20 main crop as diseases known as black pod and swollen shoot have spread in cocoa plantations, farmers and exporters said.
Port arrivals in both Ivory Coast and Ghana this season have so far run slightly behind last season's pace. March London cocoa rose 19 pounds, or 1%, to 1,863 pounds a tonne.
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