LONDON: Raw sugar futures were lower on Wednesday, weighed down by oversupply, while arabica coffee turned higher after setting a nine-month low.
SUGAR
* May raw sugar was down 0.09 cent, or 0.7 percent, at 12.38 cents per lb at 1410 GMT.
* Dealers said the market was drifting back towards last week's 2-1/2 year low of 12.18 cents, with rising production in India and Thailand contributing to oversupply.
* Indian sugar mills produced 28.18 million tonnes of sugar in the first six months of the 2017/18 marketing year, which started on Oct. 1, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said on Tuesday.
* "This is a 49 percent increase year-on-year and it is looking very likely that India will produce a record crop this season," ING said in a market note, adding that at the end of March 331 out of 524 mills were still operating.
* May white sugar fell $1.20, or 0.3 percent, to $353.50 a tonne.
COFFEE
* May arabica coffee was up 0.55 cent, or 0.5 percent, at $1.1715 per lb, bouncing off an earlier nine-month low of $1.1595.
* The International Coffee Organization on Wednesday forecast a second consecutive global coffee surplus in the 2017/18 season.
* "This excess is weighing down on coffee prices in the current coffee year," the inter-governmental body said.
* Colombia's coffee federation on Tuesday asked the government for direct help for growers of the bean, amid lower international and domestic prices and a strengthening peso currency.
* May robusta coffee was up $16 at $1,755 a tonne.
COCOA
* May New York cocoa rose $15, or 0.6 percent, to $2,513 a tonne.
* Dealers said the market regained some ground after the biggest one-day fall in nearly 11 months on Tuesday.
* An improving outlook for crops in Ivory Coast has, however, seen prices retreat from Monday's 1-1/2 year high.
* Ivory Coast cocoa farmers said their trees were loaded with ripe cocoa pods and sunny intervals last week enabled crops to dry, quelling fears low rainfall earlier this year might have hit production.
* A government spokesman said last week the Ivory Coast mid-crop was expected to reach about 500,000 tonnes, well above the 400,000 tonnes seen recently by a senior source at the Coffee and Cocoa Council.
* "Hopes are rainfall in the next month or so will bolster the situation further," INTL FCStone in Singapore said in a market note.
* May London cocoa was up 14 pounds, or 0.8 percent, at 1,747 pounds a tonne.
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