(Reuters) – Raw sugar futures on ICE fell on Wednesday before Brazilian cane data expected to show a strong crush for the first half of May, while cocoa eased in spread-related dealings.
Coffee steadied, supported by concerns over a poor Brazilian robusta (conillon) harvest.
Raw sugar dipped, moving away from Tuesday’s 23-month peak, supported by a shift to a global deficit.
Dealers awaited Brazilian data from cane industry group Unica at 1300 GMT, expected to show a rapid crush in early May.
“We expect that the data will show a continued strong harvest in the first half of May. Our guess is that it will be close to 40 million tonnes of cane,” said Tom McNeill, director of Green Pool Commodities.
A survey of analysts by S & P Global Platts showed expectations that 38.3 million tonnes of cane were crushed in centre-south Brazil in the first half of May.
July raw sugar was down 0.17 cent, or 1 percent, at 17.32 cents per lb at 1050 GMT, having risen on Tuesday to the highest level since early July 2014 at 17.70 cents a lb.
August white sugar fell $4.80, or 1 percent, at $479.00 per tonne.
Cocoa futures were lower, pressured by early selling of the July/September spread in New York.
“There was a concentrated selling effort from the opening,” one London dealer said, adding the premium had dipped to around $15 from Tuesday’s close of $35.
The climb in the premium to a contract high of $40 on Tuesday had been driven partly by concerns about the poor quality of West African mid-crops and rising differentials in the cash market.
September New York cocoa was off $19 or 0.6 percent at $3,007 a tonne.
The market remained underpinned, however, by crop concerns with a substantial global deficit widely anticipated in 2015/16.
September London cocoa was off 7 pounds or 0.3 percent at 2,200 pounds a tonne in light volume.
Coffee futures steadied, with the trade digesting a forecast by CoffeeNetwork for a global surplus of 3.8 million bags in 2016/17, after a deficit of 0.6 million bags in 2015/16.
“More pronounced support for robusta prices (since end-2015) has stemmed from the fact that, while total output in Brazil is forecast to increase, within the national total expectations are for a lower conillon crop,” it said.
July robusta was down $1, or 0.1 percent, at $1,647 per tonne.
July arabica was up 0.8 cent, or 0.7 percent, at $1.2235 per lb.
