LONDON: Sugar, coffee and cocoa prices were lower on Wednesday, dragged down by broad-based losses in crude oil and other commodity markets linked to concerns about global economic growth.
SUGAR
* May raw sugar fell 0.09 cents, or 0.7 percent, to 12.69 cents per lb by 1251 GMT.
* Dealers said the market remained underpinned by the prospect of a global deficit in the 2019/20 season.
* JOB Economia forecast that the proportion of cane used to produce sugar rather than ethanol in Centre-South Brazil would rise in 2019/20 to 37 percent from 35 percent, although a slightly lower volume of cane was anticipated.
* Dealers noted it was hard to predict the split between sugar and ethanol at this stage, as much could depend on price trends in those markets in the coming months.
* "While the proportion of the sugar cane crop that is turned into sugar is set to increase slightly, the crop is likely to remain at last year's level at best," Commerzbank said in a market note.
"In view of declining production in places such as the EU, Thailand and India, a deficit on the sugar market is probable in 2019/20. Most initial forecasts are for around 4 million tons."
* May white sugar fell $2.10, or 0.6 percent, to $339.70 a tonne.
COFFEE
* May arabica coffee was down 1.45 cents, or 1.5 percent, at 95.20 cents per lb, slipping down towards last week's contract low of 94.65 cents.
* Dealers said the market continued to be weighed down by surplus supplies which had led to a build-up in exchange stocks.
* A proposal by the Colombian coffee growers' federation that producer countries sell their high-quality harvests untethered from the New York market price could encourage buyers to look for alternative providers, importers and exporters said.
* May robusta coffee was down $13, or 0.9 percent, at $1,495 a tonne.
COCOA
* May London cocoa was 27 pounds, or 1.6 percent, lower at 1,623 pounds a tonne.
* Dealers said a rise in production in top grower Ivory Coast this season was helping to keep the market on the defensive, although the weakness of sterling on Wednesday provided some support.
* May New York cocoa was down $62, or 2.8 percent, at $2,139 a tonne.
* Ghana's Cocobod signed a $300 million three-year loan with several international lenders on Tuesday to refinance central bank-raised cocoa bills and finance production enhancement programs, one of the lenders said in a statement.
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