LONDON: Robusta coffee futures on ICE fell to a two-month low on Monday pressured by ample supplies while raw sugar also eased, tracking a decline in crude oil.
COFFEE
* March robusta coffee was down $12, or 0.8 percent, at $1,542 a tonne at 1246 GMT after touching $1,539 a tonne, its lowest since early October.
* Dealers said the harvesting of a large crop in top robusta producer Vietnam continued to weigh on prices.
* The International Coffee Organization, in a monthly update issued on Monday, maintained its forecast for a global coffee surplus of 1.59 million 60-kg bags in the 2017/18 season.
* "This excess in supply has put downward pressure on prices that may continue over the next few months," the ICO said.
* March arabica coffee rose 0.30 cent, or 0.3 percent, to $1.0440 per lb but remained in striking distance of a 2-1/2 month low of $1.0385 set on Friday.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar was down 0.07 cent, or 0.5 percent, at 12.80 cents per lb, weakened by a decline in the crude oil market.
* "Sugar is currently following crude oil like a poodle on a short lead," Marex Spectron said in a report.
* Lower energy prices diminish the competitiveness of ethanol in Brazil, bolstering concerns that mills may switch more production from the biofuel back to sugar.
* March white sugar was up a marginal $0.10, or 0.03 percent, to $345.70 a tonne.
COCOA
* March London cocoa fell 1 pound, or 0.1 percent, to 1,630 pounds a tonne with the market consolidating after a sharp advance on Friday.
* Dealers said the run-up was largely driven by technical factors rather than any significant shift in fundamentals.
* "We anticipate prices to firm in coming sessions," Sucden Financial technical analyst Geordie Wilkes said, adding the market needed to rise above 1,666 pounds "to confirm the bullish engulfing chart pattern."
* March New York cocoa was down $10, or 0.45 percent, at $2,215 a tonne.
* Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 766,000 tonnes between Oct. 1 and Dec. 9, exporters estimated on Monday, up about 31 percent from 584,000 tonnes in the same period last season.
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