Recasts, includes comments and closing prices
NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Raw sugar futures on ICE hit a 5-1/2 month low on Monday, extending a weak start to the year as supply prospects continued to improve while risk appetite soured in the wider financial markets. MKTS/GLOB
SUGAR
* March raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.22 cent, or 1.2%, at 17.83 cents per lb, after hitting its lowest since late July at 17.60 cents.
* Dealers said more rains are forecast for top sugar producer Brazil over the next 10 days, improving the crop outlook. Cane harvests in India and Thailand have also started well.
* “Rains are leading to a more optimistic view for the 2022/23 Brazilian crop,” said consultancy Hedge Point Global Markets, adding that it could revise up its current estimate of 550 million tonnes of sugarcane for the centre-south.
* Sugar’s downside, however, seems limited given prices have fallen below the ethanol parity in Brazil, which should tempt cane mills to divert some production from sugar to ethanol.
* March white sugar LSUc1 fell $4.50, or 0.9%, at $481.30 a tonne.
COCOA
* March New York cocoa CCc1 was little changed at $2,521 a tonne, having settled up 4% on Friday.
* The cocoa grind, a measure of demand, in top producer Ivory Coast rose nearly 2% year-on-year in December to 52,000 tonnes, data showed on Monday.
* Ivory Coast vies with the Netherlands for position of the world’s top cocoa grinder.
* Fourth-quarter grinding data for Europe, Asia and the U.S., to be released next week, is also expected to show improved demand, dealers said.
* In supply-side news, cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast fell 6.4% year on year, from the season in October to Jan. 9.
* March London cocoa LCCc1 fell 7 pounds, or 0.4%, to 1,698 pounds per tonne.
COFFEE
* March arabica coffee KCc1 fell 3.55 cents, or 1.5%, at $2.349 per lb.
* Weather forecasters are predicting rains in Brazil’s coffee areas will taper off during the next weeks.
* Arabica has been boosted of late by rains that have flooded coffee fields in central eastern areas in Brazil, the latest in a climate roller-coaster for the country.
* Starbucks customers arriving to claim their mobile drink orders have found cafes shut as service at U.S. restaurants slows due to COVID-19, with many workers sick or scared to go to work.
* March robusta coffee LRCc2 fell $56, or 2.4%, at $2,260 a tonne.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira and Maytaal Angel; additional reporting by Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo; Editing by David Evans and Shailesh Kuber)
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