Raw sugar dips to two-week low, cocoa and coffee also down

LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE dipped to a two-week low on Tuesday while cocoa and coffee also fell, dragged down by weakness in crude oil and global equity markets.

SUGAR

October raw sugar slipped 0.12 cents, or 1.0%, to 11.46 cents per lb by 1140 GMT after dipping to a two-week low of 11.42 cents.

Weakness in energy markets can boost sugar production in the centre-south of Brazil where it can be used either to make the sweetener or biofuel ethanol.

"The rumblings in the oil market are making the (sugar) market a little nervous," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey said in a note.

August white sugar fell $0.50, or 0.15%, to $334.60 a tonne.

COCOA

September London cocoa fell 18 pounds, or 1.15%, to 1,554 pounds per tonne, drifting back down towards a 20-month low of 1,545 pounds set last week.

Dealers said weak demand and a generally favourable outlook for the upcoming 2020/21 harvest in top grower Ivory Coast were keeping the market on the defensive.

Most of Ivory Coast's cocoa growing regions received below-average rainfall last week but good soil moisture content contributed to a favourable outlook for the upcoming main crop, farmers said on Monday.

September New York cocoa slid $35, or 1.6%, to $2,158 a tonne.

COFFEE

September arabica coffee fell 0.4 cents, or 0.4%, to 98.25 cents per lb.

Brazilian green coffee exporters shipped 2.47 million 60-kg bags abroad in June, 9.8% less than in the same month a year earlier, exporters association Cecafé said on Monday, without blaming the coronavirus pandemic for the fall.

September robusta coffee fell $4, or 0.3%, to $1,220 a tonne.