LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE were lower on Thursday, slipping further from last week’s 10-year peak, while raw sugar prices edged higher.

COFFEE

March arabica coffee was down 0.9% at $2.3520 per lb at 1548 GMT. The market climbed last week to a 10-year peak of $2.5235.

Dealers said crop tours in Brazil continued to find mixed results with some suggesting that recent rains may have improved the outlook for next year’s crop after drought and frost earlier this year.

Brazil’s coffee crop reached 47.7 million 60-kg bags this year, down 24.4% from the record output seen in 2020, the government’s food supply and statistics agency Conab said on Thursday, noting the output was heavily affected by drought.

March robusta coffee fell 0.1% to $2,300 a tonne.

The weather has been becoming drier in top robusta producer Vietnam, allowing the harvest to proceed, but an upcoming storm, if it hits the key Central Highlands growing region, would disrupt the bean drying process and potentially hurt bean quality.

SUGAR

March raw sugar rose 0.2% to 19.33 cents per lb boosted partly by gains in energy markets.

Dealers noted weakness in India’s domestic sugar market had lowered the price to where exports are viable and there remained the prospect that India could sell more than 6 million tonnes on the world market this year.

March white sugar rose 0.1% to $503.60 a tonne.

Brazilian center-south mills produced 160,000 tonnes of sugar in the second half of November, data provided by industry group Unica showed on Thursday, 62.8% less than a year ago but slightly above market expectations.

COCOA

March London cocoa fell 0.2% to 1,717 pounds a tonne.

March New York cocoa was down 0.1% at $2,545 a tonne.