London coffee sinks

London robusta futures tumbled almost 3 percent on Monday as concerns over a crop-damaging cold snap approaching Brazil eased against a backdrop of a strengthening dollar and lower crude oil prices. White sugar futures bounced back on firm demand and the possibility of a slowdown in supplies from South Asia, while cocoa consolidated after last week's strong gains, dealers said.
"The key issue for coffee is that we are in June and it is pretty much when you see any sort of threat of frost affecting the Brazilian coffee harvest," said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, a commodities research analyst with Barclays Capital in London.
"Now the news is that frost is not going to hit Brazil and this factor has been pulling prices down." London September ended down 2.9 percent, or $63, at $2,158 a tonne in volume of 8,321 lots. ICE July arabica futures fell 3.4 percent at $1.3125 per lb by 1655 GMT.
The high risk of a frost in Brazil's main coffee-growing areas forecast for around mid-June has begun to diminish as the critical period approaches, private weather forecaster Somar said on Monday. London white sugar futures recovered from losses suffered in the first half of the day, lifted by strong demand in West Africa and monsoon rains slowing supplies from India.
"The demand for whites is pretty good, I understand the offtake of 150 ICUMSA sugar to West Africa has been strong," said James Kirkup, a senior sugar broker at Fortis Commodity Derivatives in London. August white sugar finished up $0.8 at $340.7 a tonne after falling to an intraday low of $334.8.
India's annual monsoon rains, crucial to its economy, advanced to the western state of Maharashtra and look set to move up to the coastal state of Gujarat, the weather department said in a statement. The benchmark September cocoa settled down 5 pounds at 1,530 pounds a tonne after hitting a contract high of 1,546 pounds on Friday. ICE July was down $4 at $2,874 a tonne at 1702 GMT. The contract soared to an 11-week high at $2,906 a tonne on Friday.