ICE arabica coffee prices hit their highest in more than two years on Wednesday as technical signals prompted more fund buying and further signs of supply tightness emerged. Raw sugar hit a one-year high. March arabica coffee rose 0.3 cents, or 0.2%, to $1.3360 per lb by 1505 GMT, having hit $1.3685, its highest since September 2017.
Brazilian coffee exporters shipped 2.8 million 60-kilogram (132-pound) bags of green coffee to foreign markets in November, 22% fewer than in the same month a year earlier, and down 16% versus October.
Arabica has been underpinned by the prospect of a deficit in 2019/20 and worries that dry conditions in top producer Brazil in October could curb the 2020/21 crop.
A shortage of high-quality coffee in top producers like Central America, Colombia and Brazil has sparked a scramble for ICE-certified stocks, which have fallen from 2.5 million bags in March to around 2.1 million, prompting fund buying.
Rabobank said demand for arabica remains extremely strong, the Brazilian real is set to appreciate further while concerns persist about the availability of good quality washed arabicas. However, it said that sales from Brazil and Honduras have picked up strongly with the recent price surge.
March robusta coffee fell $25, or 1.7%, to $1,427 per tonne, having hit $1,479 on Tuesday, a five-month high.
Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, exported 112,891 tonnes, or 1.88 million 60-kg bags, of coffee in November, up 29% from October. For the first 11 months of the year, its exports fell 15%.
March raw sugar was down 0.08 cents, or 0.6%, at 13.38 cents per lb, after hitting 13.51 cents, its highest since last November.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) put its forecast for the stocks-to-use sugar ratio in 2018/19 at 14.5% on Tuesday, unchanged from last month, and lifted its 2019/20 ratio forecast to 13.5% versus 10.5% last month.
Brazil's centre-south region produced 337,000 tonnes of sugar in the second half of November, 36% less than a year earlier. Sugar has been buoyed by tightening supplies, with a global deficit widely forecast for the current 2019/20 season and some early indications there could be another deficit in the 2020/21 season.
Dealers said the market is getting overbought so a correction might be needed before further gains are made.
March white sugar fell $1, or 0.3%, to $351.60 a tonne, having hit its highest since February at $353.90.
March New York cocoa was down $16, or 0.6%, at $2,571 a tonne. Ivory Coast cocoa grinders processed 96,000 tonnes of beans from Oct. 1 to the end of November, 5.5% higher than the same period last season. March London cocoa was down 15 pounds ($19.25), or 0.8%, at 1,814 pounds a tonne.