LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE slid to a two-week low on Monday and were on track to fall for an eighth consecutive session while robusta coffee prices slumped to a three-month low.

SUGAR

March raw sugar fell 0.9% to 18.03 cents per lb by 1449 GMT after setting a two-week low of 17.96 cents.

Dealers said the market’s recent weak performance had created a bearish technical outlook.

Heavy rains in top sugar exporter Brazil over the weekend also improved the outlook for cane production.

An improving outlook for production in India has also weighed on prices.

India is likely to produce 31.45 million tonnes of sugar in the 2021/22 marketing year, nearly 3.1% more than the previous estimate, with output set to jump in the key western state of Maharashtra, a leading trade body said on Monday.

March white sugar fell 0.7% to $491.50 a tonne.

A small global sugar deficit is expected in the 2022/23 season, analyst Green Pool said on Monday in its first forecast for the period.

COFFEE

March robusta coffee fell 1% to $2,172 a tonne after dipping to a three-month low of $2,161.

Dealers said that a pick-up in the pace of exports from top robusta producer Vietnam had eased concerns about short-term supply tightness and helped to put the market on the defensive.

March arabica coffee was down 0.1% at $2.3565 per lb.

COCOA

March London cocoa was unchanged at 1,696 pounds a tonne, with the market underpinned by concerns about dry weather in top producer Ivory Coast.

There has been no rain for a second straight week in most of Ivory Coast’s cocoa-growing regions, farmers said on Monday, warning that this could reduce the quality of beans for the last stage of the main crop and shrink the April-to-September mid-crop.

March New York cocoa rose 0.04% to $2,495 a tonne.