Friday, 11 September 2015 17:01
LONDON: Arabica coffee futures on ICE edged up from a fresh 1-1/2-year low on Friday, pushed by rains in Brazil and a weak Brazilian currency, while raw sugar inched higher, supported by rainfall in Brazil complicating cane harvesting.
New York cocoa crept up, trading just below Thursday’s seven-week highs, supported by dry weather in top grower Ivory Coast before the start of the main harvest. Second-month arabica coffee fell to $ 1.1600 a pound, the lowest since January 2014, before edging up slightly to trade at $ 1.1735 a pound at 1043 GMT.
Hamish Smith, commodities economist with Capital Economics, said the Brazils’s sagging real currency had dragged arabica coffee futures down.
“The wet weather in Brazil has probably given some positive signs about the arabica harvest outlook for next year,” he said. Second-month robusta coffee futures fell to $ 1,544 a tonne, the lowest since November 2013, before recovering slightly to trade at $ 1,557 a tonne, down 0.6 percent or $ 9.
“Lower arabica prices have been dragging down robustas, and there are expectations of good robusta supplies from (top producer) Vietnam,” Smith said.
October raw sugar was up 0.19 cent, or 1.7 percent, at 11.52 cents per lb, underpinned by rainfall in Brazil potentially delaying cane harvesting and by a below-average monsoon in number 2 producer India.
“Supply side factors have started to kick in a bit,” Smith said, referring to the concerns over supply in Brazil and India. Platts’ Kingsman has sharply raised its 2015/16 world sugar supply deficit forecast to 1.2 million tonnes.
October whites were up $ 5.00 or 1.5 percent, at $ 343.90 per tonne.
London December cocoa was up 10 pounds or 0.5 percent at 2,207 pounds a tonne after earlier equalling Thursday’s seven-week high of 2,209 pounds.
“There are concerns about how much the dry weather will affect the main crops in Ivory Coast and Ghana in the coming months,” Smith said.
December New York cocoa traded up $ 4, or 0.1 percent, at $ 3,280 per tonne.
