London cocoa futures fell to a two-month low on Wednesday weighed on by favourable crop conditions in Ivory Coast and the strength of sterling against the dollar. March London cocoa fell 17 pounds or 1.1 percent, to 1,509 pounds a tonne by 1208 GMT after dipping to a low of 1,504 pounds, the weakest for the second month since Sep. 29. Britain's sterling jumped to a two-month high on Wednesday as investors greeted news reports that Britain and the European Union had agreed the outlines of a Brexit settlement bill potentially paving the way to a future trade pact.
Dealers said the weather in top grower Ivory Coast was also boosting crop prospects and there appeared a growing likelihood there would be a global surplus this season of perhaps 150,000 tonnes. "All the fundamentals I hear are pretty negative to the price. The weather is fantastic (in Ivory Coast)," one London dealer said. March New York cocoa was down $2, or 0.1 percent, at $2,047 a tonne.
March raw sugar fell 0.05 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 14.99 cents per lb with the market falling back down into its recent trading range after the recent failure to breach key resistance around 15.50 cents. March white sugar fell by $1.20, or 0.3 percent, to $388.20 a tonne. Brazil's lower house of Congress approved on Tuesday a bill to set up a program to boost the use of biofuels, a move that could bolster sugar prices by encouraging mills to produce more ethanol and less sweetener. January robusta coffee was up $4, or 0.2 percent, at $1,749 a tonne with the market edging further away from Wednesday's 17-month low of $1,699.
Vietnam's coffee exports are expected to have fallen an estimated 22.4 percent in the first 11 months of this year from a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in a report on Wednesday. March arabica coffee fell 0.15 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $1.2970 per lb. Colombia's fourth-quarter coffee harvest could fall 30 percent from the prior year because of heavy rains in some parts of the South American country for a 2017 total of up to 14 million 60-kg bags, the head of the growers federation said on Tuesday.