LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE rose on Tuesday, recovering from Monday’s fall amid supply concerns and as upbeat trade data from China boosted sentiment in the wider financial markets.
May raw sugar rose 1.4% to 15.57 cents per lb at 1555 GMT.
Dealers said while sugar was consolidating around 15 cents, the upside was capped as nearby demand appeared weak. Still, concerns over the Brazilian and French harvests were keeping sugar well supported, they added.
Mills in Brazil’s centre-south produced 23% less sugar in the second half of March versus a year ago, as operations in the new sugar season got off to a slow start.
France’s farm ministry on Tuesday forecast sugar beet plantings to be down 6% from last year. The forecasts were based on data collected by April 1, before the cold snap which the ministry said could have severe consequences for sugar beet.
On Monday, French beet growers group CGB said cold snaps in the past week have destroyed 30,000-50,000 hectares of sugar beet, calling it the worst frost-related beet losses ever recorded.
May white sugar, which expires on Thursday, rose 1.6% to $427 a tonne, having slumped to a three-month low on Monday.
May arabica coffee rose 1.2% to $1.2965 per lb, having hit its highest since mid-March earlier.
Brazil exported 3.06 million 60-kg bags of green coffee in March, 2.7% less than in the same month a year earlier, exporters association Cecafe said.
Cecafe sees a sharp reduction of export volumes from July onwards, as Brazil will harvest a much smaller crop this year - an off-year in arabica’s biennial production cycle.
Fitch Solution said it expects coffee consumption growth to average 1.7% year on year from 2021-2025, a slower rate than the 3% average growth seen between 2015 and 2019.
May robusta coffee was little changed at $1,344 a tonne.
May London cocoa rose 1.9% to 1,610 pounds per tonne, having hit its lowest since mid-November on Monday.
Indicating weak demand and ample supply, May cocoa slid to a discount of 30 pounds to July on Monday, versus a premium of about 19 pounds last Wednesday.
European first-quarter cocoa grind data, a measure of demand, is expected on Wednesday. May New York cocoa rose 1.4% to $2,398 a tonne.
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