NEW/YORKLONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE fell to a one-year low for the fourth time this week on Friday, weighed down by harvest pressure from Central America, while cocoa settled weak.
Sugar was firm on short-covering and consolidative dealings.
"The (arabica) harvest should be expanding pretty quickly across Central America now. I think there's some stuff starting to move," said Jack Scoville, The Price Group in Chicago.
March arabica coffee on ICE fell 2.20 cents, or 1 percent, to $2.1555 a lb by 12:27 p.m. EST (1727 GMT ), having earlier dipped to a one- Friday, weighed down by harvest pressure from Central America, while cocoa settled weak.
Sugar was firm on short-covering and consolidative dealings.
"The harvest should be expanding pretty quickly across Central America now. I think year low of $2.1420 .
Dealers said the weakness in arabica prices this week had been triggered mainly by selling across the commodity complex linked to the deepening debt crisis in the euro zone, leading to a weak chart pattern and fund buying.
March robusta coffee on Liffe was down $8 at $1,902 a tonne, having touched $1,890 a tonne earlier in the session, the lowest level for the second month since late November.
Dock workers at Brazil's largest port, Santos, called off a threatened strike after a labour tribunal upheld most of their pay demands, a senior union official said on Thursday, averting disruption to farming and manufacturing exports.
ICE raw sugar futures edged up on short-covering, after falling below the 23-cent level in the March contract and finding some demand at this level, but they remained within striking distance of the prior session's 6-1/2 month low.
Benchmark March futures traded up 0.24 cent, or 1 percent, at 22.98 cents a lb. The contract fell to 22.62 cents on Thursday, the lowest level for the front month since June.
Dealers said a period of consolidation was possible, although any strength in the dollar could exert further downward pressure on prices.
Big crops in the EU, Russia, Ukraine, India and Thailand, capped gains on the sugar market, dealers said.
"We expect sugar to maintain its downward trend and expect mktresistance now at 23.50 cents in the medium term," said Nick Penney of brokerage Sucden Financial.
"Support should lie under 22 cents."
March white sugar futures on Liffe rose $3.40 or 0.6 percent to $599.70 per tonne.
COCOA RALLY FIZZLES
Cocoa futures fell for the third straight day after rebounding sharply from a three-year low set early this week.
March cocoa on ICE dropped $51, or 2.3 percent, to settle at $2,121 a tonne, while May cocoa on Liffe reversed to finish down 25 pounds, or 1.8 percent, at 1,387 pounds a tonne.
"Cocoa's right in the guts of harvest and it has nothing friendly going for it," Scoville said.
"We're seeing the fact that there's more offer and I think a lot of people bought a lot of high priced cocoa so they're trying to get rid of that."
Also bearish are the cocoa arrivals at Ivorian ports that reached 509,852 tonnes by Dec. 11, up from 470,243 tonnes in the same period a year ago, data from Bourse du Cafe et Cacao (BCC) showed .
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