Robusta coffee recovers after hitting nine-year low

LONDON: Robusta coffee prices on ICE recovered on Wednesday after hitting a nine-year low earlier in the session due to sales by Vietnamese exporters who have faced pressure to hedge their produce.

COFFEE

* July robusta coffee was up $15, or 1.2 percent, at $1,310 a tonne by 1359 GMT, recovering from its lowest since March 2010 at $1,267.

* A dealer said Vietnamese exporters holding large physical stocks of unhedged coffee have been tempted back into the futures market to lock in prices before they fall further.

* In Brazil, the harvest of conilon, the robusta variety grown there, is underway and expected to be strong, exacerbating existing concerns about oversupply.

* Also weighing on coffee, the Brazilian real hit its weakest against the dollar in almost a week on Tuesday. A weak real can encourage selling of dollar-denominated commodities such as coffee.

* July arabica coffee rose 1.25 cents, or 1.4 percent, to 89.30 cents per lb after dropping to a 13-year low of 87.80 cents on Tuesday.

SUGAR

* July raw sugar fell 0.17 cents, or 1.3 percent, to 11.78 cents per lb, after touching 11.84 cents on Monday, the weakest since October.

* Sugar has been largely rangebound this year but broke out on Friday when prices fell below 12 cents on concerns over plentiful supplies out of India.

* "The macro (backdrop) remains negative for sugar with the Brazilian real weakening while crude remains some $5 lower than its highs seen in late April," said a dealer.

* "Another test of Monday's lows looks likely. The key is the appetite the funds have for selling," he added.

* Weak oil prices can tempt Brazilian cane mills to produce more sugar and less biofuel ethanol.

* Brazil is expected to produce a smaller cane crop in 2019/20 than in the previous season, but sugar output is set to rise.

* Chinese sugar output is expected to rise less than 1 percent to 10.7 million tonnes in 2019/20.

* ICE August white sugar fell $3.80, or 1.2 percent, to $324.50 a tonne.

COCOA

* July London cocoa rose 11 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to 1,747 pounds a tonne, remaining within its trading range since early April.

* July New York cocoa rose $27, or 1.2 percent, to $2,328 a tonne.

* While global demand is robust, supplies remain plentiful with arrivals of cocoa at ports of top grower Ivory Coast running about 14 percent above last year's levels.

* New York July cocoa may fall to $2,245 per tonne as it has cleared a technical support level at $2,317.