Liffe sugar lower

Liffe August white sugar closes $7.40 lower at $664.60 a tonne on Wednesday. Market turned lower in late trade weighed by sharp decline in crude oil and many other commodity markets.
Liffe September cocoa ended 24 pounds lower at 1,837 pounds a tonne. Market weighed by increased flow of cocoa from top grower Ivory Coast.
Liffe September robusta coffee ended $41 lower at $2,595 a tonne, dragged down by steep setback in ICE arabica coffee futures.
"When you've seen these dips lower there has been good industry buying because there has been forecasts of short supply and of prices remaining up around $3.00/lb," Andrea Thompson, analyst at CoffeeNetwork said.
Coffee prices are set to remain high, as farmers increase maintenance and fertilizer use will not boost production enough to match growing demand.
"The robusta market has showed good strength in the last couple of months, it's staying up, it's proving resilient, people are wondering whether robusta demand has been underestimated," Thompson added.
CoffeeNetwork sees 2010/11 robusta demand at 55.5 million 60-kg bags, on par with production, having previously expected a surplus.
Sugar futures were higher, bolstered by a combination of a slow start to Brazilian harvesting and a long line up of vessels waiting to load new-crop sugar at Santos port, dealers said.
"Sugar is up because the dollar is weaker and commodities are firm, but the weather has been good in Brazil and harvest conditions are favourable," said Thomas Kujawa of brokerage Sucden Financial.
The dollar remained under pressure after a batch of weak US data on Tuesday raised concerns the US economy's soft patch could become protracted.
White sugar futures outpaced gains in raws due to firm North African and Middle Eastern physical demand for refined sugar before Ramadan, dealers said.
Cocoa prices were steady with the release of Ivory Coast stocks weighing on the market after months of stalled trade in the world's top producer.
"London's going to be inundated with the delayed cocoa and that's being reflected in the price action and the structure of the market," a London-based broker said.