SOFTS-NY cocoa prices hold near two-year high, sugar slips

Adds background, updates prices

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – New York cocoa futures on ICE were consolidating just below the previous session’s more than two-year high on Friday while raw sugar prices eased.

COCOA

* May New York cocoa CCc1 rose 0.1% to $2,870 a tonne by 1527 GMT after peaking on Thursday at $2,888 – the highest level for the front month since December 2020.

* Dealers said the market looked set to consolidate in the short-term after the recent strong advance, with the May contract rising almost $300 in a little more than a week.

* The market remained underpinned, however, by tight supplies in top grower Ivory Coast, where port arrivals have been running behind last year’s pace.

* “It is worth mentioning that the curb in the arrivals in Cote d’Ivoire was partly triggered by the detrimental effects of cocoa-related diseases like the cocoa swollen shoot virus disease,” the International Cocoa Organization said in a monthly update on Friday.

* May London cocoa LCCc1 rose 0.3% to 2,126 pounds per tonne.

* Hershey is looking to reduce “trace” amounts of lead and cadmium after consumer reports found that some dark chocolate bars had potentially harmful levels of the heavy metals.

SUGAR

* May raw sugar SBc1 fell 0.4% to 20.80 cents per lb.

* Dealers said funds were easing back from a large net long position while lower energy prices also contributed to the market’s decline.

* May white sugar LSUc1 fell 0.03% to $597.60 a tonne.

* Brazil’s center-south crushed 608,000 tonnes of sugarcane in the first half of March, industry group Unica said on Friday, adding sugar output totalled just 16,000 tonnes.

COFFEE

* May arabica coffee KCc1 rose 2.4% to $1.7855 per lb.

* Dealers said the market remained choppy but lacked a clear overall trend with prices now around the middle of this month’s trading range.

* May robusta coffee LRCc2 rose 2.7% to $2,181 a tonne.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt Editing by David Goodman, Elaine Hardcastle)

(( nigel.hunt@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0) 7990 561421; Reuters Messaging: nigel.hunt.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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