Cocoa prices rise amid renewed focus on supply woes
Adds comments and closing prices
NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - Cocoa prices rose on Thursday, recovering some of this week's steep falls as investors renewed their focus on supply woes after figures on second-quarter Asia demand came in as expected.
Raw sugar fell to a one-month low.
COCOA
* September London cocoa LCCU4 settled up 303 pounds, or 4.8%, to 6,623 pounds per metric ton, having settled down 3.1% on Wednesday following a 7.4% descent on Tuesday.
* A major cocoa producing region in Ghana, the world's second largest cocoa grower, is 81% infected with swollen shoot disease, according to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO).
* Ghana's devastated crop is widely expected to recover next season thanks to benign weather, but the figures were a timely reminder of the ongoing severity of the disease outbreak, experts said.
* Elsewhere, Asia's cocoa grind, a measure of demand, fell 1.4% year on year to 210,968 tons in the second quarter, a figure that was as expected, said Steve Wateridge, head of research at Tropical Research Services by Expana.
* September New York cocoa CCc1 rose 3.9% to $8,068 a ton, having closed 1% down on Wednesday after an 8.7% fall on Tuesday.
SUGAR
* October raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.42 cents, or 2.2%, at 18.94 cents per lb, having lost 1.3% on Wednesday. It hit a one-month low of 18.81 cents/lb earlier.
* Dealers noted good weather conditions in Asia, which led some analysts to review production numbers upward , including for India.
* Malaysia has asked India to ease export curbs on some farm goods such as rice and sugar.
* Australia's Wilmar Sugar and Renewables closedits sugar mills for up to 16 hours because of a strike.
* October white sugar LSUc1 fell 1.8% at $545.50 a ton.
COFFEE
* September robusta coffee LRCc2 settled down $91, or 2%, at $4,479 a ton, having set a record high of $4,681 last week.
* Trading activity in top robusta producer Vietnam remained sluggish this week, with traders expressing doubt that prices could rise above current lofty levels given a lack of buying interest.
* Premiums fell in Indonesia, the world's second-largest robusta exporter.
* September arabica coffee KCc2 fell 0.9% at $2.409 per lb, having hit a 2-1/2 year high of $2.5530 last week.
Reporting by Maytaal Angel and Marcelo Teixeira
Editing by David Goodman, Elaine Hardcastle and Mohammed Safi Shamsi
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