NEW YORK/LONDON: Robusta coffee futures on ICE were marginally lower on Friday, slipping from the previous session’s 10-year peak, but still gained on the year.

On an annualized basis, sugar futures also posted gains while cocoa fell.

COFFEE

March robusta coffee settled down $3, or 0.1%, at $2,370 a tonne. The benchmark second position climbed to a 10-year high of $2,384 on Thursday.

Dealers said supply chain issues had disrupted shipments from top robusta producer Vietnam while the market had also been supported this year by the strength of arabica prices.

The front-month contract ended the year up 81% and the benchmark second position was up 71%.

March arabica coffee settled down 2.75 cents, or 1.2%, at $2.261 per lb.

Arabica coffee prices closed the year with an annual gain of about 76% with drought and frost in top producer Brazil earlier this year helping fuel gains.

SUGAR

March raw sugar settled up 0.1 cents, or 0.5%, at 18.88 cents per lb.

Dealers said the market had been boosted this year by declining stocks with a global deficit in the 2020/21 season (October/September) generally expected to be followed by another deficit in the current 2021/22 season.

Raw sugar prices ended up 21.9% on the year.

March white sugar settled up $2.40, or 0.5%, at $497.10 a tonne.

White sugar prices posted an annual gain of 18.1%.

COCOA

March New York cocoa settled down $39, or 1.5%, to $2,520 a tonne.

New York cocoa prices ended the year down just over 3%.

Dealers said the cocoa market had struggled to keep pace with many other agricultural markets this year with favourable crop conditions in West Africa helping to generate a large global surplus in the 2020/21 (October/September) season.

March London cocoa settled down 9 pounds, or 0.5%, to 1,701 pounds per tonne.

London cocoa prices ended the year with an annual loss of about 3.2%.