Liffe sugar lower

Liffe March white sugar closed $10.10 lower at $814.40 per tonne in a correction, having rallied on Thursday after the European Union said it would approve extra imports to address an expected supply shortage, and markets also focused on a possible early cut in the import duty in Russia.
Liffe May cocoa ended 37 pounds lower at 2,143 pounds a tonne. Cocoa prices corrected lower from over-bought levels having rallied after a month-long export ban in top grower Ivory Coast ignited concerns about global supply.
Liffe March robusta coffee ended $39 higher at $2,129 a tonne, underpinned by strength in the arabicas market. Arabica coffee has traded in a range since late December, with prices supported by a bullish macroeconomic picture of higher demand in emerging economies and a shortage of high-quality washed arabica beans from key producer Colombia.
Tight supplies of higher quality beans also pushed up physical coffee prices in top grower Brazil and in Tanzania, where top-grade coffee fetched an all-time high at this week's auction, traders said on Friday. Sugar eased in a technical correction after rallying on Thursday after the European Union's executive said it would approve extra sugar imports to curb an expected shortage.
The news sealed the biggest two-day rally since October 8, totalling 7.5 percent. "We're within striking distance of moving the high bar higher," said James Kirkup, head of sugar brokerage at ABN Amro Markets (UK) Ltd. Dealers also noted that the executive commission of the customs union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus may approve a lower raw sugar import tariff at a meeting in February, though some had expected an earlier decision.
The Philippines on Friday raised its raw sugar output estimate for the current 2010-2011 crop year and said stocks of the sweetener were more than enough to meet demand, allowing it to delay or possibly scrap import plans. In cocoa, futures sagged in a technical correction after rallying almost 20 percent over the past three weeks, bolstered by a fierce political stand-off in top producer Ivory Coast after a November 28 election, potentially threatening the supply pipeline.
In line with European Union restrictions, Danish shipping company Maersk, the main shipper of Ivorian beans to buyers in the United States and Asia, has halted cocoa exports from Ivory Coast and stopped taking new orders for imports to the country, a company official said on Friday.