March cocoa in London ends 15 pounds lower at 2,132 pounds a tonne on Friday pressured by harvests in West Africa. London January robusta coffee ends down $6 at $1,439 a tonne. Harvest delays in Vietnam providing some support although large crop still anticipated. December white sugar in London ends $4.20 lower at $581.00 per tonne.
Market consolidating after strong run-up but still underpinned by supply deficit in top consumer India. Sugar, coffee and cocoa futures drifted down in commodity-wide selling on Friday as dealers digested higher-than-expected US jobless data. Talk that the EU Commission was about to grant a large tonnage of 2009/10 export licences, also may have weighed on sugar futures, dealers said.
There was no immediate confirmation of any award of licences. Fresh physical offtake was required to give the sugar futures market renewed impetus, dealers said. "At the moment we're stuck in a 21-25 cents a lb range," said David Sadler, a senior sugar futures dealer.
Sugar dealers were keeping a close eye on more favourable weather patterns in Brazil after heavy and persistent rains delayed harvesting in the world's top producer and exporter. They were also tracking the outlook for Indian buying in 2009/10, with several anticipating a hefty import requirement of 6-7 million tonnes that would underpin prices.
British sugar refiner and sweetener group Tate & Lyle Plc warned on Friday of pricing pressures for US corn sweeteners, its biggest single market, after reporting a 13 percent dip in first-half profits. Coffee futures inched down as dealers focused on tropical storm Ida which hit eastern Nicaragua on Thursday, although the initial impression was that the depression was not likely to trigger a reaction to futures prices.