Arabica coffee hits 47-year high as supplies tighten
Updates with comments and closing prices
LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) -Arabica coffee futures rose to the highest nominal price since at least 1977 on Monday, buoyed partly by tight supplies, while cocoa and sugar prices were slightly lower.
COFFEE
* March arabica coffee KCc2 settled up 2.7 cents, or 0.9%, at $3.048 per lb after setting a peak at $3.1125, the highest since the first years of the start of coffee futures trading in the 1970s.
* Dealers said supplies were tightening with some farmers in Brazil holding back sales for tax reasons and also in the hope that prices could rise further.
* They also noted next year's arabica crop in Brazil was not developing as well as many had expected, with recent rains failing to reverse damage caused by earlier dry weather.
* Heavy rains in Costa Rica triggered a national emergency and destroyed close to 15% of the Central American country's annual coffee harvest, costing the coffee growers about $45 million, according to estimates from the ICAFE coffee institute.
* Speculators have increased net long positions in both arabica and robusta coffee during the recent run-up.
* January robusta coffee LRCc2 rose by 2.5% to $5,110 a metric ton.
COCOA
* March London cocoa LCCc2 settled down 87 pounds, or 1.2%, to 7,405 pounds per ton, extending the market's retreat from Friday's five-month high of 7,654 pounds.
* Citi said in a note to clients the risk for upside momentum to re-emerge in the next two to three months is high.
* "As a result we revise up our three-month point price to $10,000/ton. Both the main crop and mid-crop are poor in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, and while production is ramping up globally, we are concerned on near-term availability of supplies," it said.
* Dealers said port arrivals in top grower Ivory Coast continued to run above last year's pace, though a slowdown is expected next month.
* Below-average rains mixed with long sunny spells in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa regions gave a boost to the October-to-March main crop last week, farmers said on Monday, adding that a mild Harmattan wind started blowing in some regions.
* March New York cocoa CCc2 fell by 1.2% to $8,972 a ton.
SUGAR
* March raw sugar SBc1 fell 1% to 21.15 cents per lb.
* Dealers said the market is looking for direction, while conditions continue to improve for the next Brazilian crop.
* March white sugar LSUc1 fell by 1.4% to $545.60 a ton.
Reporting by Nigel Hunt and Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by David Goodman and Jonathan Oatis
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