Arabica coffee hits 8-month low; raw sugar falls

NEW YORK/LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE hit eight-month lows on Thursday on escalating worries over the impact of the economic downturn on demand as global markets plunged on renewed fears over the coronavirus pandemic.

Raw sugar prices closed sharply down as oil posted sharp losses.

COFFEE

July arabica coffee settled down 0.75 cents, or 0.8%, at 96 cents per lb, the lowest closing price since mid-October 2019.

Signs are emerging that demand for pricey arabica beans is faltering just as top producer Brazil looks set for another record crop, dealers said.

Starbucks expects current-quarter operating income to plunge by up to $2.2 billion and sales to decline for the rest of the year, even as nearly all its cafes have reopened after coronavirus-related lockdowns.

September robusta coffee settled down $26, or 2.1%, at $1,227 a tonne.

Top robusta producer Vietnam exported 130,284 tonnes of coffee in May, down 21.4% from April. For the first five months of 2020, exports were up 5.0% from a year earlier.

SUGAR

July raw sugar settled down 0.29 cents, or 2.4%, at 11.94 cents per lb, heading away from Monday's near three-month high.

Oil prices sank, a move that pushes cane mills in top producer Brazil to ramp up sugar output at the expense of cane-based ethanol fuel.

Annual monsoon rains have covered more than a third of India, a top sugar producer.

Brazil's Raizen, the world's largest sugar producing company, believes mills in the country should reinforce measures to deal with coronavirus as the pathogen spreads out of the financial hub Sao Paulo and moves to the sugar belt.

August white sugar settled down $7.10, or 1.8%, at $387.80 a tonne.

COCOA

September New York cocoa settled down $103, or 4.3%, to $2,291 a tonne, the lowest closing price since mid-April.

September London cocoa settled down 33 pounds, or 1.9%, to 1,725 pounds per tonne.