LONDON: Robusta coffee futures touched a fresh 16-month low on Monday amid light speculative selling and expectations for ample supplies from top grower Vietnam, while raw sugar hovered near six-month highs touched in the prior session.
COFFEE
January robusta coffee was down $10, or 0.6 percent, at $1,739 a tonne by 1209 GMT, after touching a session low of $1,735, the weakest for the second position since July 2016.
That extended last week's decline, which was driven partly by selling by speculative funds, as well as some Vietnamese producers.
Dealers noted that, while activity was more subdued on Monday, selling pressure persisted amid expectations for a large harvest from top grower Vietnam.
"There has been concern that the market can't really hold on to these levels with the new Vietnam crop coming to market," said one dealer. "And quite frankly it's going to be a good crop."
March arabica coffee rose 1.45 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $1.2625 per lb, extending gains from the prior session.
Dealers pointed to further short covering by funds, which hold a large net short position in the market.
SUGAR
March raw sugar rose 0.03 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 15.48 cents per lb, hovering near Friday's six-month high of 15.49.
Brazil's centre-south region produced 1.256 million tonnes of sugar in the first half of November, compared to 1.883 million tonnes in the previous two-week period, cane industry group Unica said on Monday.
Mills in the main cane belt in Brazil crushed 23.348 million tonnes of cane in the period versus 30.025 million tonnes in the second half of the previous month.
An S&P Global Platts survey of analysts had forecast the crush at 22.46 million tonnes, with sugar production at 1.23 million tonnes.
March white sugar climbed by $0.90, or 0.2 percent, to $398 a tonne.
COCOA
March London cocoa slipped by 8 pounds ($11), or 0.5 percent, to 1,561 pounds a tonne.
March New York cocoa was down $5, or 0.2 percent, at $2,102 a tonne.
Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast had reached 219,506 tonnes by Oct. 31 since the start of the season on Oct. 1, down 12 percent from the same period of the previous season, official data showed on Monday.
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