London cocoa climbs to record high; sugar also up

NEW YORK — London cocoa futures on ICE hit a record high on Wednesday, extending the market’s prolonged advance on tightening stocks after poor crops in West Africa. Sugar futures also rose.

COCOA: March London cocoa settled up £15 or 0.4% at £3,883 per metric ton, after setting a record high of £3,910.

Dealers said supplies remain very tight owing to poor crops in West Africa and there is no sign of the current run-up in prices coming to an end.

There are some concerns, however, that price increases for products such as chocolate bars may be starting to crimp demand.

Citi cut its view of chocolate maker Barry Callebaut’s shares due to “extreme cocoa inflation.”

March New York cocoa rose 0.4% to $4,822 a ton.

Cocoa farmgate prices rose to a record high in Cameroon on Wednesday, pushed up by tightening global supply because of production shortfalls in top growers Ivory Coast and Ghana.

COFFEE: March robusta coffee settled down $31 or 0.9% at $3,305 a ton, with the market consolidating just below the previous session’s contract high of $3,379.

Dealers said robusta stocks in Europe were tight partly because of disruption to the flow of Asian supplies across the Red Sea.

“Destination stocks were incredibly low when the Red Sea problems began, disrupting the flow of robustas and, to a lower extent, arabicas in Europe,” Rabobank said in a note.

March arabica coffee was little changed at $1.9405 per pound (lb).

Coffee trader Comexim projected the new Brazilian crop at 67.15 million bags, a small increase over the current crop.

SUGAR: March raw sugar settled up 0.22 cent or 0.9% at 24.13 cents per lb.

Dealers cited uncertainty about Brazil’s 2024 crop as rains have been below average.

Broker StoneX on Wednesday projected Brazil’s new sugarcane crop at 622 million tons, 5.4% below the previous one.

March white sugar rose 0.5% to $666.30 a ton. —