Robusta coffee posts gain; cocoa and sugar also climb

NEW YORK/LONDON — Robusta coffee futures on ICE closed up on Tuesday, after hitting a fouryear high in the prior session, while sugar and cocoa prices also climbed, buoyed by broad-based gains in commodity markets.

COFFEE: November robusta coffee closed $8 up at $2,160 a ton. The benchmark second position set a four-year high of $2,178 on Monday.

The market continued to derive support from a pickup in demand for robusta coffee linked to the high cost of arabica beans and disruptions to the flow of supplies from Vietnam due to a shortage of container freight.

December arabica coffee rose 0.75 cent to $1.8335 per pound.

Lower production in Brazil, driven partly by drought and frost, has helped to tighten arabica supplies.

Brazil’s coffee crop is expected to drop 25.7% this year compared with the record 2020 season, when 63 million bags were produced, according to Conab.

Brazil’s Cooxupe, the world’s largest coffee co-op and the country’s No. 1 exporter, expects significant damage to the 2022 crop from frosts that hit fields in July.

SUGAR: October raw sugar closed up 0.11 cent to 18.97 cents per pound, partially recovering from the fall in the previous session.

Dealers said the market was heavily influenced by trends in broader financial markets with risk appetite boosted by sentiment that contagion from the distress of debt-saddled Chinese developer Evergrande would be limited.

December white sugar rose $3.30 to $501.20 a ton.

COCOA: December New York cocoa closed up $12 at $2,605 a ton.

The market was supported by trends in wider financial market and expectations that supplies could tighten in the upcoming 2021/22 season driven mainly by a drop in output in number two producer Ghana.

December London cocoa rose £14 to £1,816 a ton. —