LONDON: Sugar futures on ICE surged on Thursday as physical buying by Egypt and Iran lent suport, though the upside was limited by a brisk cane crush in Brazil.
Coffee, meanwhile, edged higher on tight global supply and cocoa eased on concerns about demand and technical weakness.
Raw sugar futures jumped after Reuters reported that state buying agencies for Egypt and Iran had been in the market.
Egypt's Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (SIIC) bought 150,000 tonnes of raw sugar from two commodities houses and Iran bought 60,000 tonnes of Brazilian raw sugar as the Islamic Republic steps up imports, trade sources said.
"The arbitrage is profitable for importing," one senior London-based broker said.
The global sugar market has been supported by a shift into deficit after years of surpluses, but gains were kept in check on Thursday as the cane crush in centre-south Brazil benefited from favourable weather.
October raw sugar on ICE was up 0.53 cents, or 2.75 percent, at 19.81 cents per lb by 1448 GMT.
October white sugar was up $9.10, or 1.7 percent, at $543 a tonne.
Coffee futures firmed on concern about forecasts for cool weather in a part of top producer Brazil's growing region later this week.
September arabica was up 0.7 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $1.4770 per lb, underpinned by concerns over the quality of new-crop Brazilian beans.
September robusta was up $9, or 0.5 percent, at $1,825 a tonne, buoyed by a very poor harvest in Brazil and a slow start to harvesting in Indonesia.
A softer British pound against the US dollar limited losses of sterling-based London cocoa.
September London cocoa was down 26 pounds, or 1.1 percent, at 2,391 pounds a tonne after touching its lowest since July 1 at 2,389 pounds.
September New York cocoa was down $27, or 0.9 percent, at $2,942 a tonne after falling as low as $2,938, the lowest since May 27.
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