Cocoa futures dive 20%, raw sugar hits 18-month low

SOFTS-Cocoa futures dive 20%, raw sugar hits 18-month low

Adds comments and closing prices

NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) –Cocoa futures on ICE fell sharply on Monday, erasing previous week’s gains in choppy trading, while raw sugar prices slumped to an 18-month low.

COCOA

* July New York cocoa CCc2 settled down $1,725, or 19.4%, to $7,166 a metric ton, erasing last week’s 9% gain which was seen as a modest recovery.

* “The market has topped out and speculators are using rallies to get out,” commodities analyst Lukas Kuemmerle said.

* “While cocoa has found renewed buying interest near $7,000 per metric ton, prompting the latest rally throughout the middle of last week, prices are likely to gradually retreat to levels closer to $5,000 per ton,” he added.

* Dealers said the market remained volatile, though there were signs of consolidation after prices slumped by about 40% from a record high of $11,722 on April 19 to a low of $6,990 on May 3.

* Fundamentals remained supportive, with a large global deficit widely forecast in the current 2023/24 season after poor crops in Ivory Coast and Ghana.

* July London cocoa LCCc2 fell 20.7% to 6,000 pounds per ton.

SUGAR

* July raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.67 cent, or 3.5%, at 18.63 cents per lb after slumping to an 18-month low of 18.58 cents.

* Dealers said the strong pace of sugar production in the key Centre-South region of Brazil was helping to put the market on the defensive.

* Sugar industry group UNICA is expected to issue CS Brazil sugar production data covering the second half of April in the next few days with a year-on-year rise of about 50% anticipated.

* China’s agriculture ministry forecast a 10.55% rise in sugar output in the 2024/25 season (October/September) to 11 million tons, driven by a rise in planted area.

* August white sugar LSUc1 fell 3.4% to $550.00 a ton.

COFFEE

* July robusta coffee LRCc2 settled down $41, or 1.2%, at $3,399 a ton.

* Dealers said more favourable crop weather in top robusta producer Vietnam and rising exchange stocks had helped to spark the recent price drop.

* July arabica coffee KCc2 fell 2.5% to $1.9605 per lb.

Reporting by Nigel Hunt and Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Ed Osmond, David Goodman and Shounak Dasgupta