NEW YORK: New York cocoa futures on ICE rose sharply on Monday, as funds trimmed their net short position on mounting worries that the El Nino weather pattern could disrupt production.
Raw sugar and arabica coffee also rose.
There was no trading for London cocoa, robusta coffee and refined sugar on Monday due to a bank holiday in England.
COCOA: New York cocoa was 7.3 percent up at USD3,855 per metric ton at 1520 GMT after hitting USD3,895 earlier, the highest since February 11.
Cocoa rose on fund short-covering amid concerns that a shortage of fertilisers and a looming El Nino weather event could hit global 2026/27 output.
“El Nino will likely have a negative effect on Ecuador’s upcoming crop. Many analysts were calling for Ecuador’s crop at 650,000 tons this year, but it seems we will see somewhere between 590,000 and 600,000 tons,” said StoneX cocoa broker Vladimir Zientek.
The recent grind and earnings reports were also better than expected, which reinforces forecasts of improved demand in the second-half of the year, he said.
SUGAR: Raw sugar was up 1.7 percent at 15.22 cents per lb at 1520 GMT, a three-week high.
The sugar market has received support amid prospects of cane being diverted for increased ethanol production in several key sugar-producing countries, as higher energy prices boost the biofuel’s appeal.
The University of Sao Paulo’s research center CEPEA said in a note on Monday that sales of hydrous ethanol in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest fuel market, increased 25 percent in April from a year earlier.
Hydrous ethanol is used in Brazil’s flex-fuel engine cars, which can run entirely on the biofuel.
COFFEE: Arabica coffee was up 1 percent at USD2.89 per lb at 1520 GMT.
The prospect of a bumper coffee harvest in top grower Brazil is putting a lid on the market, but the potential impact of El Nino, particularly in Asia, remains a significant question mark.
Indonesia’s exports of Sumatra robusta coffee beans dropped to 7,304.9 metric tons in March, a 68 percent decline from a year earlier, local trade office data showed on Monday.
Vietnam exported 810,000 metric tons of coffee in the first four months of 2026, up 15.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, government data showed on Sunday.
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