LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE fell on Thursday, weighed down partly by weakness in crude oil prices, while coffee and cocoa prices also dropped.
SUGAR
October raw sugar fell by 0.28 cents, or 1.4%, to 19.89 cents per lb at 1029 GMT.
Oil dropped to $66 a barrel, its lowest since May, pressured by concerns about weaker demand as COVID-19 cases rise, a stronger U.S. dollar and a surprise increase in U.S. gasoline inventories.
Weak energy prices can lead to more use of cane to produce sugar rather than biofuel ethanol.
October white sugar fell by $3.90, or 0.8%, to $500.60 a tonne.
COFFEE
December arabica coffee fell by 3.5 cents, or 1.9%, to $1.7935 per lb.
Dealers noted there continued to be differing assessments of the damage caused by recent frosts in Brazil but crop losses may not be as severe as initially feared.
- November robusta coffee fell by $22, or 1.2%, to $1,855 a tonne.
Coffee trading in Asia's top exporters continued to be sluggish this week as Vietnam's coffee market was hit by a lack of beans at the end of the crop season, while the coronavirus crisis in Indonesia hindered activities, traders said.
COCOA
December New York cocoa fell by $36, or 1.35%, to $2,637 a tonne?, retreating from an eight-month peak of $2,681 set on Wednesday.
The market remains underpinned by a pick-up in demand as curbs related to the COVID-19 pandemic are lifted in some countries and some concerns about the outlook for 2021/22 main crops in West Africa which gets underway in October.
"There is no shortage of cocoa at the moment ... However, there are concerns that the upcoming main crop that begins in both countries in October may not reach the high level achieved last year," Commerzbank said in a note.
December London cocoa was 10 pounds, or 0.55%, lower at 1,795 pounds a tonne.
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