Arabica coffee hits near 1-1/2 month high; sugar recovers

LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE hit their highest in nearly a month and a half on Wednesday amid worries over adverse weather in Brazil, while raw sugar recovered from 11 month lows hit on Tuesday.

COFFEE

* December arabica rose 1 cent, or 1%, to 102.60 cents per lb by 1109 GMT after touching its highest since late July at 102.90 cents.

* The contract has recovered since Aug. 20 but remains at historically low levels overall given record harvests from top producer Brazil over the past two seasons.

* "At the moment weather forecast is for dry weather (in Brazil arabica growing areas), so the market is rising," said Carlos Mera, senior analyst at Rabobank.

* "Its not a major concern just yet but it could become one, and prices are so low (it) means there's lots of upside."

* Green coffee exports from Brazil fell 8.5% in August this year versus last, driven by a 14.4% annual decline in robusta exports.

* November robusta coffee rose $3, or 0.2%, to $1,330 a tonne. The contract dropped to a nine-year low of $1,262 last week.

* Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, exported 1.90 million 60-kg bags of coffee in August, down 18.7% from July.

SUGAR

* October raw sugar rose 0.01 cents, or 0.09%, to 10.89 cents per lb, recovering from an 11 month low of 10.85 hit on Tuesday.

* October white sugar was up $6.10, or 2%, to $307.60 a tonne, having hit its weakest since mid-July at $300.20 last week.

* The October contract moved briefly into a premium over December of <LSUV9-Z9> $2.4 a tonne earlier, indicating traders might be trimming back expectations of a large delivery on Friday when the contract expires.

* But Sucden said in a report the path of least resistance remains to the downside. "We are mindful of the enormous net speculative short position however there seems to be little short-covering threat from them in the short term."

COCOA

* December New York cocoa rose $1, or 0.04%, to $2,288 a tonne. The contract gained 2.5% last week.

* Higher prices are needed to ensure cocoa production becomes more sustainable, a senior European Union official said on Tuesday, backing plans by top growers Ivory Coast and Ghana to levy a "living income differential" on sales.

* Ivory Coast and Ghana will meet major chocolate makers and grinders in Abidjan on Wednesday to make plans to regulate the industry's efforts to source cocoa sustainably.

* Ivory Coast is expected to process a record 847,000 tonnes of cocoa beans by 2022 as agro-industry firms increase their grinding capacity.

* December London cocoa rose 5 pounds, or 0.3% to 1,762 pounds a tonne. The contract gained 2.8% last week.