Raw sugar and arabica prices ease, cocoa also lower

LONDON: Raw sugar futures were lower on Wednesday, with overhead producer selling keeping a lid on the market, while arabica coffee also weakened slightly as the market consolidated just above last week's 13-year low.

SUGAR

May raw sugar was down 0.05 cent, or 0.4 percent, to 12.73 cents per lb at 1316 GMT.

Dealers said strength in crude oil prices continued to underpin the market, but the upside remained capped by producer selling.

"Highly visible producer pricing (supposedly mainly Thais) is continuing to put a cap on May at 12.80 and scale up from there," consultants Agrilion said in a market note.

Dealers noted data on sugar production in Centre-South Brazil confirmed a significant decline during the 2018/19 season (April/March) although a slight recovery is generally expected in the current season which began last week.

May white sugar was down $1.60, or 0.5 percent, at $326.60 a tonne.

Dealers noted May was trading at a discount of about $11 to August ahead of the former month's expiry on April 15, reflecting both a lack of appetite to take delivery of white sugar and ample supplies.

"Standalone refineries are reducing raws demand also given the current low whites premium which increases availability for May delivery. Central American and even Argentine sugar may be available against May, one hears, and this may more than offset any shortage out of CS Brazil," Sucden Financial senior trader Nick Penney said in a market note.

COFFEE

May arabica coffee was down 0.25 cent, or 0.3 percent, at 93.40 cents per lb.

Dealers said the market was currently consolidating just above a 13-year low of 91.25 cents set last week.

May robusta coffee was up $4, or 0.3 percent, at $1,424 a tonne.

Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, exported 172,080 tonnes, or 2.87 million 60-kg bags, of coffee in March,  up 49.5 percent from February, customs data released on Wednesday showed.

COCOA

May New York cocoa was down $11, or 0.45 percent, at $2,435 a tonne in a modest pullback from the prior session's nine-month high of $2,451.

Dealers said the market was technically overbought after the recent rally so the slight setback was not unexpected.

Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 1.660 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and March 31, CCC data showed on Wednesday, up about 10 percent from 1.509 million tonnes in the same period last season.

May London cocoa fell 6 pounds, or 0.3 percent, to 1,798 pounds a tonne.