LONDON: Raw sugar futures edged higher on Monday, though the market continued to lack a clear overall trend, while cocoa and coffee also advanced.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar was up 0.07 cents, or 0.6 percent, at 12.67 cents a lb at 1451 GMT.
* Dealers said the market continued to drift in a narrow band with a significant rise in prices likely to trigger exports from India, where stocks have been climbing, and a switch to using more cane for sugar rather than ethanol in Brazil.
* "The market lacks any fundamental impetus to break higher or lower for now," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey said in a market note.
* India's production is expected to remain above consumption in 2019/20, with farmers unlikely to turn away from cane despite the high level of arrears owed to them by mills.
* India's cane farmers are owed 200 billion rupees ($2.8 billion) by mills after refined sugar prices dropped below the cost of production, a leading trade body said on Monday.
* "Even if arrears stay as high as they are, cane still gives farmers a better return than other crops (and history tells us the millers have always ended up paying the arrears in the end)," Marex Spectron analyst Robin Shaw said in a report.
* Speculators increased their bearish stance in raw sugar futures and options on ICE Futures US in the week to Dec. 24, US government data showed in a report delayed by the government shutdown.
* March white sugar fell by $0.50, or 0.15 percent, to $337.30 a tonne.
COCOA
* May London cocoa was up 21 pounds, or 1.3 percent, at 1,628 pounds a tonne.
* The market has regained some ground after finding support last week around a seven-week low of 1,585 pounds.
* "The band of support at 1,580/1,600 (pounds a tonne) has held firm and this could provide a platform for higher prices," said Sucden Financial technical analyst Geordie Wilkes.
* May New York cocoa rose $37, or 1.7 percent, to $2,246 a tonne.
COFFEE
* March robusta coffee was up $9, or 0.68 percent, at $1,556 a tonne.
* Dealers said activity in the physical market was likely to be slow this week as top robusta producer Vietnam celebrates the Tet Lunar New Year holiday.
* March arabica coffee was up 1.75 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $1.0545 per lb.
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