ocoa(Reuters) – New York cocoa futures on ICE rose on Friday, regaining much of the ground lost this week with the help of a slightly softer dollar and expectations of some delays in the next Ivory Coast crop.
COCOA
* December New York cocoa rose $23 or 1.2 percent to $1,892 a tonne by 1151 GMT.
* Dealers said the market had regained much of the ground lost earlier in the week, when the second position fell to its lowest since July 13.
* They also said expectations for some delays to the start of the next crop from top producer Ivory Coast were helping improve sentiment, despite persistently ample nearby supplies.
* “The crop will definitely be late,” said one dealer. “It looks to start badly in October, pick up at the end of November and probably get into full flow only at the end of December.”
* December London cocoa was up 14 pounds or 0.9 percent, at 1,497 pounds a tonne.
SUGAR
* October raw sugar rose 0.11 cent or 0.8 percent to 13.40 cents per lb, edging further away from Wednesday’s seven-week low of 12.92 cents.
* Dealers said a prolonged slide in prices had temporarily stalled with the market on track for a small weekly gain of about 1.5 percent.
* The scope for any significant rebound in prices remained capped by rising production.
* “The news flow remains negative for sugar prices,” said analyst Tobin Gorey of Commonwealth Bank of Australia noting several analysts were upwardly revising a projected global surplus for the 2017/18 season.
* The market is set to switch into surplus partly due to rising production in the European Union following reforms to its sugar regime.
* “The EU will have plenty of refined sugar to sell to end-users this year. That sugar will mean less of the market is left for refiners, so they will buy less raw sugar,” Gorey said.
* October white sugar rose $0.80, or 0.2 percent, to $370.40 a tonne.
COFFEE
* December arabica coffee rose a marginal 0.1 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $1.3215 per lb.
* The contract dipped to $1.3110 on Thursday, the weakest for the second position since July 14.
* Dealers noted the harvest in top producer Brazil was beginning to wind down with progress slightly ahead of last season’s pace.
* Brazil’s Cooxupé, the world’s largest coffee cooperative, on Thursday reduced its view for the output in the region where it operates, in the south of Minas Gerais state, citing unfavourable weather and the berry borer beetle infestation.
* November robusta coffee rose $19, or 0.93 percent, to $2,073 per tonne, pulling away from an eight-week low of $2,030 hit on Thursday.
