LONDON: Raw sugar futures rose towards the previous session’s more than one-year high on Thursday, buoyed by adverse weather in several producing countries, with a strengthening El Nino weather pattern adding to crop concerns.
SUGAR: Raw sugar was up 1.1 percent at 16.60 cents per lb at 1401 GMT. Prices had risen to a more than one-year high of 17.11 cents on Wednesday.
El Nino is strengthening, with a greater than 90 percent chance of a very strong event during the northern hemisphere fall and winter 2026-27, the US Climate Prediction Center said on Thursday.
For sugar, El Niño typically brings excess rain in the second half of the year, which can disrupt and reduce the quality of the harvest in top grower Brazil.
In No. 2 sugar grower India and No. 2 exporter Thailand, by contrast, the weather pattern typically reduces rainfall during the summer monsoon.
Ukraine’s sugar beet output could fall to 9 million metric tons in 2026, down from 11.7 million a year earlier, the state weather forecasting centre said on Thursday.
White sugar rose 0.9 percent to USD511.50 a ton.
COCOA: ICE London cocoa gained 1 percent to £4,197 a ton.
Dealers said the market was supported by a potential decline in production in West Africa in the 2026/27 season partly driven by El Nino weather conditions.
New York cocoa rose 1 percent to USD5,780 a ton.
Ghanaian cocoa farmers are pushing back against a newly passed law that restricts how they can use their own land, urging President John Dramani Mahama to withhold his assent until they have been properly consulted.
COFFEE: ICE arabica coffee was down 0.7 percent at USD3.1760 per lb. Dealers noted a recent earthquake had disrupted coffee exports from Colombia.
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