LONDON: London cocoa futures rose on Wednesday, boosted by light speculative buying and expectations for a slowdown in supplies from top grower Ivory Coast, while robusta coffee set a new 2-1/2 month low.
COCOA
* March London cocoa was up 16 pounds, or 1 percent, at 1,608 pounds a tonne by 1157 GMT.
* Prices plunged on Tuesday, with dealers pointing to speculative selling in thin trade, coupled with a weak pound and worries about plentiful supplies this season.
* "The funds have been pushing the price around and now we are seeing some corrective action," said one European dealer.
* The market was also supported by expectations that port arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast may start slowing after an initial surge.
* "The arrivals are tapering off," the dealer said. "Considering we're less than three months into arrivals, they have exceeded even the highest expectations - but they can't keep up their pace."
* Focus was also on December expiry on Tuesday. The contract's discount to the March position plunged as low as 109 pounds.
* Dealers noted appetite to take delivery was weak, mainly due to an abundance of lower-quality Cameroon cocoa in the certified stocks.
* "The poor quality and the discounts of that origin are obviously weighing on the spread as we come to expiry," the dealer said.
* March New York cocoa rose $20, or 1 percent, to$2,136 a tonne, after shedding 4 percent in the prior session.
COFFEE
* March robusta coffee was up $6, or 0.4 percent, at $1,533 a tonne, after setting a fresh 2-1/2 month low of $1,524 in earlier trade.
* Prices remained under pressure from expectations for ample supplies from top grower Vietnam, which is in the midst of harvesting a large crop.
* March arabica coffee rose 0.70 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $1.0305 per lb, near a 2-1/2 month low of $1.0205 touched in the prior session.
* Brazil exported 3.42 million 60-kg bags of green coffee in November, up 25.9 percent from the same month a year earlier, exporters association Cecafé said on Tuesday.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar rose 0.03 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 12.86 cents per lb.
* March white sugar climbed $1.20, or 0.4 percent, to $345.90 a tonne.
* India's sugar production could fall in 2019/20 as farmers are struggling to plant cane because of a drought in two of the country's top producing states, according to multiple industry officials and traders.
* Thailand's sugar production in the 2018/19 season is seen falling 7.5 percent to 13.5 million tonnes from the previous season's record-high level.
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