NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Arabica coffee on ICE fell to a 1-1/2-month low on Monday in the year’s first trading session amid fears of an impact to demand from Omicron cases and ample rains in Brazil. Raw sugar was also down.
There was no trading for robusta coffee, refined sugar and London cocoa due to a British holiday.
COFFEE
* March arabica coffee KCc1 fell 2.8 cents, or 1.2%, to $2.233 per lb. The front-month contract hit a low of 2.2055 earlier in the session, the lowest since Nov. 15.
* Fears about potential impacts to coffee demand from increasing worldwideOmicron variant cases continued to hurt the market, dealers said. * They also cited ample rains over coffee fields in top producer Brazil, although some analysts are starting to fear negative impacts from excess moisture.
* Brazil exported 207,640 tonnes of green coffee in December versus 254,552 tonnes a year ago.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.14 cent, or 0.7%, at 18.74 cents per lb.
* Dealers said widespread rains in Brazil’s centre-south region, the world’s top sugarcane producing area, will likely boost crop prospects in 2022 after a smaller output in 2021 due to drought.
* They also cited slower demand and rising Indian production as negative factors.
* Brazil exported 1.94 million tonnes of sugar in December versus 2.88 million tonnes a year ago.
* Indian sugar mills have produced 11.56 million tonnes of sugar in the first three months of 2021/22 marketing year, up nearly 4.3% from the same period a year earlier.
COCOA
* March New York cocoa CCc1 settled down $21, or 0.8%, at $2,499 a tonne.
* A second consecutive week of light rain and mild winds across Ivory Coast’s cocoa growing regions could spell good news for the April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said on Monday.
* Cocoa arrivals at ports in world’s top grower Ivory Coast reached 1.08 million tonnes by Jan. 2, exporters estimated on Monday, down 4% from the same period last season.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Richard Chang)
(([email protected]; +1 332 220 8062; Reuters Messaging: [email protected] – https://twitter.com/tx_marcelo))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
www.nasdaq.com