LONDON: March raw sugar edged up 0.1% to 26.50 cents per lb, having hit a recent 12-year high. The October contract expired on Friday with a record delivery of 2.87 million metric tons, which is usually seen as a bearish signal.

Monsoon rainfall in India, the world’s second largest sugar grower, fell to its lowest since 2018 this year as the El Nino weather pattern made August the driest in more than a century.

Speculators reduced their bullish bets in raw sugar futures in the week to Sept. 26, the CFTC said. December white sugar was little changed at $706.10 a ton.

Cocoa futures traded on the ICE exchange rallied on Monday, recovering losses made last week on reports of healthy pod development as investors refocused on a weak broader supply picture.

COCOA

March London cocoa was up 2.1% at 2,978 pounds per ton at 1317 GMT. The contract lost 1.6% last week thanks to profit taking by speculators and reports that some farmers in top grower Ivory Coast were seeing good pod development.

Cocoa remains underpinned however by ongoing concerns about crop disease in West Africa, the most important producing region for the bean.

Speculators cut their net long position in London cocoa futures by 1,284 lots to 63,558 lots as of Sept. 26, while reducing their long position in New York cocoa futures by 11,371 contracts to 51,722 in the same week.

Cocoa production is meanwhile expanding outside West Africa as farmers in Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia see potential profit in the crop, a Reuters investigation found. December New York cocoa rose 2.1% to $3,489 a ton.

COFFEE

December arabica coffee rose 1.6% to $1.4850 per lb. ICE will no longer accept the practice of re-submission for sampling and grading of arabica coffees which have previously been certificated for delivery and subsequently de-certified.