Raw sugar holds just below recent peak, NY cocoa eases

• They noted total India export sales remained at around 2.1 to 2.2 million tonnes despite the availability of a subsidy for up to 6 million tonnes.
• March New York cocoa was down $14, or 0.6%, at $2,483 a tonne.
• March arabica coffee was down 0.90 cents, or 0.7%, at $1.3160 per lb.

LONDON: Raw sugar futures on ICE were slightly lower on Monday as the market consolidated just below a more than one-year high set earlier this month.

SUGAR

March raw sugar fell 0.01 cent, or 0.1%, to 13.53 cents per lb by 1229 GMT.

Dealers said the market was hovering just below a more than one-year high of 13.67 cents set on Dec. 13.

They noted total India export sales remained at around 2.1 to 2.2 million tonnes despite the availability of a subsidy for up to 6 million tonnes.

Broker Marex Spectron said in a report that a delay to the harvest in the southern districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka had slowed sales, adding almost all the export quota from the more northerly district of Uttar Pradesh had been committed.

"The government is about reallocate export quotas and we think that from the end of January, when the southern harvests have advanced and their total is easier to estimate, export sales from these regions will pick up again," Marex said.

March white sugar fell $0.70, or 0.2%, to $360.70 a tonne.

Egypt's strategic reserves of sugar stand at six months, the supply ministry said in a statement on Monday.

COCOA

March New York cocoa was down $14, or 0.6%, at $2,483 a tonne.

Dealers said generally favourable crop conditions in top grower Ivory Coast had helped put the market on the defensive.

There was no rain last week in most of Ivory Coast's cocoa-growing regions, but late and mild Harmattan winds this year have boosted expectations of strong harvests during the first two months of 2020, farmers said on Monday.

March London cocoa was unchanged at 1,817 pounds a tonne.

COFFEE

March arabica coffee was down 0.90 cents, or 0.7%, at $1.3160 per lb.

Dealers said conditions remained choppy with the market losing some ground after rallying strongly during November and much of December.

March robusta coffee was down $16, or 1.15%, at $1,371 a tonne.