Sugar Futures Fall on Brazil, India Supply Forecasts; Cocoa, Coffee Drop

Sugar prices fell on forecasts that output will increase in Brazil and India, the world’s largest producers. Cocoa and coffee also declined.

Sugar output in Brazil, the leading grower, will rise 3.8 percent in the year that started May 1, a U.S. Department of Agriculture unit said yesterday. Output in India will increase 6.2 percent in the year beginning Oct. 1, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a separate report. On April 18, sugar touched 22.4 cents a pound, the lowest since Sept. 16.

“We’re going to see prices go lower on supplies,” said Luis Rangel, a vice president at ICAP Futures LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Raw sugar for July delivery slid 0.43 cent, or 1.8 percent, to 23.1 cents at 9:09 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Before today, the price slumped 27 percent this year, the biggest drop among 19 raw materials in the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index.

In London, refined-sugar futures for August delivery fell $10, or 1.6 percent to $628.70 a metric ton on NYSE Liffe.

Cocoa futures for July delivery fell $16, or 0.5 percent, to $3,090 a ton in New York.

Arabica-coffee futures for July delivery fell 1.15 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $2.983 a pound.

Orange-juice futures for July delivery were little changed at $1.705 a pound.

Cotton for July delivery rose 0.26 cent, or 0.2 percent, to $1.6732 a pound.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-21/cocoa-may-fall-on-ivory-coast-shipments-speculation-sugar-coffee-slide.html)