Robusta coffee futures fell to a 2-1/2-month-low on Wednesday, pressured by speculative and producer selling, while New York cocoa turned lower after failing to breach its 100-day moving average. September robusta coffee settled down $22, or 1.3 percent, at $1,693 per tonne, after reaching $1,691, the weakest level for the second position since late March.
The market was pressured by short-selling and long-liquidation by speculators, combined with producer hedging from top grower Vietnam, dealers said. "I think there's just a little bit of spec repositioning," one dealer said. "But we have seen some commercial selling as well - some Vietnam producers have come to market. But there hasn't been a huge amount of roaster buying."
September arabica coffee settled down 0.9 cent, or 0.8 percent, at $1.186 per lb. The contract traded well within the range from the past week as traders await new fundamentals, they said. September New York cocoa settled down $53, or 2.2 percent, at $2,391 per tonne.
Earlier, September rose on short covering to $2,475, where it faced resistance at the 100-day moving average at $2,484, traders said.
Total open interest has dropped sharply for the past eight sessions, down 18 percent in June so far, to 255,203 lots by Tuesday, ICE data shows, while US government data shows speculators reduced their net long position.
September London cocoa settled down 39 pounds, or 2.2 percent, at 1,710 pounds per tonne.
Ghana and Ivory Coast, the world's two biggest cocoa producers, will jointly agree on the volume and timing of cocoa exports for the 2019/20 season to alleviate a global glut, the head of Ghana's Cocobod said.
Separately, Ghana will uproot 400,000 hectares of cocoa infected by swollen-shoot disease, which has badly affected crops this year, Cocobod and its Ivorian counterpart said in a statement.
October raw sugar settled up 0.09 cent, or 0.7 percent, at 12.76 cents per lb, trading within the range of the prior two sessions.
The discount of the July contract, which will expire at the end of the month, to October narrowed sharply to close at 0.25 cent versus 0.32 cent the prior session.
August white sugar settled up $1.40, or 0.4 percent, at $353.40 per tonne.
French sugar group Cristal Union said it had scrapped minimum prices for sugar beet farmers because it expects sugar prices to fall further in 2018 after hitting historic lows last year.