Arabica coffee retreats towards 13-year lows after rally

LONDON: Coffee futures on ICE fell on Tuesday, heading back towards 13-year lows after a climb to 10-day highs in the prior session ran out of steam.

COFFEE

* July arabica coffee fell 0.7 cent, or 0.8 percent, at 92.15 cents per lb at 1127 GMT, after hitting a high of 95.25 cents on Monday before falling on the close.

* The contract plunged last week to a 13-1/2 year low of 89 cents as a global coffee glut and technical weakness continued to weigh down prices.

* "The factors pushing coffee down have not changed. The market will maintain its downtrend for the time being," said a dealer.

* New York July coffee may retest a support at $0.9045 per lb, as it failed to break a resistance at $0.9475, a Reuters technical analysis showed.

* In the week to April 16, speculators hiked their net short or sell position in arabica coffee by 7,916 contracts to 79,067 contracts, the largest since October.

* July robusta coffee fell $11, or 0.8 percent, to $1,405 a tonne.

COCOA

* July New York cocoa dipped $2, or 0.1 percent, to $2,344 per tonne.

* The contract has declined in recent sessions as a short-covering rally that had lifted prices to a three-month high on April 11 ran out of steam.

* While global cocoa demand has been robust, supplies have also been plentiful, with arrivals to ports in top grower Ivory Coast running about 14 percent above last year's levels.

* Last week, data on global cocoa grindings came in above market expectations, signalling robust demand.

* In top-grower Ivory Coast, grindings were up 5.5 percent between Oct. 1 and March 31 compared to the same period a year earlier.

* North American cocoa grindings in the first quarter of were nearly 2 percent higher than the first quarter of 2018.

* July London cocoa fell 11 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to 1,754 pounds per tonne after climbing to a 3-1/2 month high last week.

SUGAR

* May raw sugar rose 0.11 cent, or 0.9 percent, to 12.65 cents per lb.

* China's sugar imports fell 85 percent year on year in March to 60,000 tonnes.

* Ukrainian sugar union Ukrtsukor lowered its forecast for the 2019 sugar beet sowing area to 205,000-210,000 hectares from 230,000-280,000 hectares in 2018.

* The sugar market remains underpinned by strength in energy markets, although the recent weakness of Brazil's real currency has been a bearish influence.

* August white sugar was up $0.90, or 0.3 percent, at $339.60 a tonne.