Arabica coffee hits one-week high, robusta also rises

LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE rose to the highest level in more than a week on Wednesday as crop losses in top producer Brazil remained the main supportive factor, while robusta coffee climbed to a one-month peak.

COFFEE

December arabica coffee was up 0.15 cents, or 0.1%, at $1.8590 per lb at 1430 GMT after climbing to a peak of $1.8825, the highest in more than one week.

Dealers said the market remained underpinned by supply tightness, with a combination of drought and recent frosts in Brazil denting the outlook for coffee production this year and more significantly in 2022.

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"Given that coffee looks set to remain in short supply, there are reports that producers are noticeably reluctant to sell," Commerzbank said in a note.

Losses from recent frosts may have affected 18-20% of Brazil's coffee crop, the country's agriculture minister said on Tuesday, revising up the scale of the devastation from the worst cold front to hit the country's producers since 1994.

Brazilian farmers started to take out dead coffee trees after the frosts, and some will switch to grains.

November robusta coffee was $2, or 0.1%, higher at $1,973 a tonne after hitting a one-month high of $1,985.

COCOA

December New York cocoa rose by $28, or 1.1%, to $2,598 a tonne.

Rabobank said in a note that the market had derived support from expectations that production in Ivory Coast and Ghana will likely fall in the upcoming 2021/22 season which begins in October.

Rabobank said in a note that rainfall now appears in line with average in Ivory Coast and Ghana but "the rocky start to rainfall in the region this season, especially in Ghana, will likely still have an impact on production."

December London cocoa was up 16 pounds, or 0.9%, at 1,796 pounds a tonne.

SUGAR

October raw sugar fell by 0.03 cents, or 0.15%, to 19.55 cents per lb.

October white sugar fell by $2.90, or 0.6%, to $474.60 a tonne.