LONDON: Robusta coffee futures on ICE eased slightly on Friday but were still on track for a sixth successive weekly rise buoyed by tight supplies, while cocoa prices rose sharply.

May robusta coffee fell 0.8% to $3,735 a metric ton by 1200 GMT, slipping back slightly after peaking at $3,849 on Thursday - its highest since the current form on the contract started trading in 2008.

Dealers said supplies in Vietnam remained very tight and there were concerns about potential drought in the world’s top robusta producer.

“The sharp rise in robusta prices is due to concerns about drought-related crop losses in Vietnam, the most important producer country. The upcoming harvests in Brazil and Indonesia could alleviate these concerns somewhat and lead to a fall in prices,” Commerzbank said in a note. Brazilian farmers are preparing to start harvesting a larger robusta coffee crop this year just as local prices are at a record high.

However, dealers said there were some concerns that the robusta harvest in Indonesia could be delayed until the end of May or June. May arabica coffee rose a marginal 0.02% to $2.0680 per lb.

July London cocoa rose 2.55% to 7,568 pounds a ton with the market beginning to climb back up towards a record high of 8,050 pounds set earlier this week.

Dealers said supplies remained tight following poor crops in Ivory Coast and Ghana this season. July New York cocoa rose 2.2% to $9,220 a ton. May raw sugar rose 0.3% to 22.42 cents per lb. May white sugar was up 0.4% at $653.30 a ton. French farmers will be allowed to apply more pesticides on their sugar beet fields this year due to a high risk of attacks from an insect carrying a disease that had ravaged crops in 2020, France’s deputy agriculture minister said on Friday.