Raw sugar dips but remains within range; arabica coffee inches up

NEW YORK/LONDON: Raw sugar prices on ICE dipped on Monday but remained firmly within their recent range, while arabica coffee edged higher after trading at 13-year lows last week.

SUGAR

May raw sugar settled down 0.11 cent, or 0.9 percent, at 12.66 cents per lb.

The increase of producer selling above the 12.80-cent level has kept a lid on the market and helped keep futures in their tight range, dealers noted.

As Brazil devotes a growing share of sugarcane to ethanol, energy prices have also helped keep futures rangebound.

"Sugar is mathematically forced to stay within the ethanol parity (range). It can't go below ethanol parity or above, it's stuck," said Marex Spectron analyst Robin Shaw.

India is likely to receive average monsoon rains this year, raising expectations of higher farm output.

May white sugar settled up 20 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $329.80 a tonne. The contract expired on Monday.

COFFEE

May arabica coffee settled up 1 cent, or 1.1 percent, at 91.40 cents per lb, after slumping to a 13-year low of 89.35 cents on Friday amid a massive Brazilian crop.

"We have some sideways consolidating here. But if there's no weather event in Brazil, we could grind lower throughout the summer," said one US dealer, pointing to seasonal pressure as Brazil is set to ramp up harvesting in the coming weeks.

Colombia will give coffee farmers an additional $32 million in subsidies and aid, President Ivan Duque said on Saturday.

May robusta coffee settled up $23, or 1.7 percent, at $1,410 a tonne.

COCOA

July New York cocoa settled down $11, or 0.5 percent, at $2,396 per tonne.

This was the eleventh straight session that the contract settled above its 200-day moving average.

The market's recent run-up has been fueled by speculative short-covering amid now-fading concerns about dry weather in top grower Ivory Coast.

Good weather was supporting the development of the mid-crop, farmers in top-grower Ivory Coast said.

Cocoa arrivals at Ivorian ports reached 1.763 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and April 14, exporters estimated, up about 14 percent year on year.

European grind data, an indicator of demand, is set to be released on Tuesday, with many expecting an increase of about two percent. North American data, set for publication on Thursday, is expected to be around unchanged.