LONDON: Cocoa prices were lower on Thursday as favourable weather in West Africa raised the prospect of a global surplus in the upcoming 2024/25 season.
Cocoa gains but settles below recent peaks, coffee falls
Cocoa
A cocoa surplus of 108,500 tons is seen next season following a record deficit of 475,000 tons in 2023/24, a Reuters poll of 12 traders and analysts showed.
Dealers noted, however, that there remained significant short-term supply tightness which had led to a sharp increase in the premium for the September contract to around $1,690 a ton from around $1,000 at the beginning of this month.
ICE Futures US licensed warehouses reported that stocks totalled 2.85 million bags, as of Aug. 7, down from 3.14 million a month ago.
“It is believed that supply shortages in the current season are forcing grinders to withdraw stocks, and pushing cocoa bean inventories in US warehouses to their lowest in four years,” ING said in a daily update.
December London cocoa was down 2.25% at 5,379 pounds a ton.
Coffee
September arabica coffee fell 0.5% to $2.4510 per lb, slipping back slightly after hitting a three-week high of $2.48 on Wednesday.
Brazil’s state weather forecaster CPTEC released an alert for possible frosts over the weekend, but they are not expected to hit the main coffee areas.
September robusta coffee fell 0.3% to $4,466 a ton.
Sugar
October raw sugar was down 0.3% at 18.09 cents per lb.
Dealers were awaiting the release of data from industry group Unica on cane and sugar production in the key Centre-South region of Brazil.
A survey conducted by S&P Global Commodity Insights had a median forecast for sugar production in the second half of July of 3.6 million tons, down 2.4% from a year earlier.
October white sugar rose 0.2% to $515.50 a ton.