LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE were higher on Wednesday, regaining ground after recent steep losses, as the market tracked trends in energy prices.

Sugar

March raw sugar rose 0.5% to 18.70 cents per lb by 1518 GMT, although the contract remains more than 9% below a 4-1/2 year peak set less than two weeks ago.

"Fundamentally speaking, on sugar, things tend to look more bullish rather than bearish. But not many are still paying much attention to fundamentals these days remaining hypnotised by the bloodbath that happens especially in crude oil and in the energy complex," CovrigAnalytics said in a weekly update.

March white sugar rose 0.4% to $487.40 a tonne.

Sugar beet production in France is expected to reach 35 million tonnes this year in a recovery from a very poor 2020 crop, growers group CGB said on Wednesday.

Sugar, coffee and cocoa prices fall on demand concerns

Cocoa

March London cocoa rose 0.1% to 1,638 pounds a tonne after dipping to a four-month low of 1,629 pounds.

Dealers said concerns that the latest coronavirus variant could stall a recovery in cocoa demand have put the market on the defensive.

An expected drop in production this year, however, helped to underpin the market.

Cocoa production in top producer Ivory Coast is down 10% from the same period last season, port arrival figures show, and farmers and buyers worry the trend could continue through the end of the main-crop harvest.

March New York cocoa was up 0.2% at $2,350 a tonne.

Coffee

March arabica coffee rose 0.45% to $2.3335 per lb, supported by broad-based gains in commodity markets.

January robusta coffee rose 1.3% to $2,289 a tonne.

Indonesia exported 8,811.44 tonnes of Sumatran robusta coffee beans in November from Lampung province, local trade office data showed on Wednesday, down 70.8% from the same month last year.