Cocoa hits two-week lows; sugar and coffee fall

15 Oct, 2021

LONDON: Cocoa futures on ICE hit a two-week low on Thursday on worries over demand growth, while sugar and coffee also fell following recent peaks.

COCOA

December London cocoa was down 0.3% to 1,814 pounds a tonne at 1427 GMT, having hit its lowest level in two weeks at 1,798 pounds.

Data that showed Europe's third-quarter cocoa grind rose 8.7% from a year earlier but only 3.5% from the same period in 2019 continues to weigh on sentiment, dealers said.

December New York cocoa fell 0.4% to $2,592 a tonne, having hit its lowest level two weeks at $2,567.

COFFEE

December arabica coffee fell 0.6% to $2.0720 per lb, having hit $2.1515 on Tuesday, just short of a seven-year peak.

Top producer Brazil's September exports of green coffee fell 29% from a year earlier, exporters association Cecafe said, citing continued shipping bottlenecks.

"The escalating shortage (of) containers and vessel space has seen freight costs on primary shipping routes increase by 525% to over 1,000% in the past 18 months," one dealer said.

November robusta coffee fell 0.4% to $2,124 a tonne.

SUGAR

March raw sugar ?fell 1.7% to 19.54 cents per lb, having touched its highest since February 2017 on Monday at 20.61 cents.

Sugar production in Brazil's centre-south region fell 19% on a year-on-year basis in the second half of September, industry group Unica said on Wednesday.

Dealers said the fall in output was slightly lower than expected and that sugar remains rangebound overall. December white sugar fell 0.4% to $512.30 a tonne.

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