LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE hit a near three-month low on Thursday as crude oil prices headed lower and the dollar rose, though chatter over declining output in top producer Brazil limited losses.

Meanwhile, Arabica coffee futures steadied after surging 8% on Wednesday.

SUGAR

July raw sugar fell 1.2% to 18.32 cents per lb at 1224 GMT.

Dealers said sugar is under pressure from risk-off sentiment in the wider financial markets and that if anything, fundamentals could be tightening given market players are scaling back their Brazil output estimates.

Commodities trader Louis Dreyfus expects a strong shift to ethanol production in Brazil, projecting sugar output would fall to 29 million tonnes in the center-south.

Brazilian mills use cane to produce both ethanol and sugar, meaning higher ethanol output comes at the expense of sugar.

August white sugar fell 0.6% to $511.80 a tonne.

COFFEE

July arabica coffee fell 1.7% to $2.1615 per lb, having surged 7.9% by the close on Wednesday.

A cold front is expected to advance over top producer Brazil next week, keeping dealers on edge.

Frosts last year drove coffee prices to their highest level since 2011.

July robusta coffee rose $69, or 3.4%, at $2,078 a tonne.

Indonesia, a key robusta producer, exported 6,771 tonnes of robusta coffee beans in April from Lampung province, data showed, down 52% from a year earlier.

COCOA

July New York cocoa fell 1.7% to $2,446 a tonne, having hit a five-month low of $2,428 on Monday.

July London cocoa fell 0.7% to 1,780 pounds per tonne.