Robusta coffee edges higher while London cocoa also climbs

LONDON: Robusta coffee futures rose on Monday, edging towards last week’s record high, while London cocoa and white sugar prices also firmed.

Arabica coffee, raw sugar and New York cocoa markets were closed on Monday because of a public holiday in the U.S.

Coffee

Robusta coffee was up 0.8% at $5,772 a metric ton by 1115 GMT after hitting a record high of $5,849 last week.

Prices have been buoyed by tight supplies of Arabica coffee, with further tightening expected in light of smaller arabica crop projections in top grower Brazil for the coming 2025/26 season.

Dealers said that farmers in top robusta producer Vietnam are reluctant to sell at present, anticipating further price rises.

Speculators have also been increasing robusta coffee’s net long position, now at a four-month high.

Robusta coffee hits fresh record peak, white sugar at 2-month top

Cocoa

London cocoa was up 0.7% at 8,199 pounds a ton.

Dealers noted the pace of cocoa arrivals in ports in Ivory Coast was slowing but the cumulative total for the season to date remained nearly 20% above the same period last season.

Cocoa arrivals totalled 27,000 tons between February 10 and February 16, down from 36,000 tons in the same week of the previous season.

Indonesia has set a target to replant up to 10,000 hectares of smallholders’ cocoa plantations this year, the chief executive of the state plantation fund said on Monday.

Sugar

White sugar rose 1.4% to $544.90 a ton.

Dealers noted that funds have been scaling back net short positions in both white and raw sugar futures, with price charts becoming more bullish after the market’s recent rise.