Cocoa futures dive 20%, raw sugar hits 18-month low
Adds comments and closing prices
NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) -Cocoa futures on ICE fell sharply on Monday, erasing previous week's gains in choppy trading, while raw sugar prices slumped to an 18-month low.
COCOA
* July New York cocoa CCc2 settled down $1,725, or 19.4%, to $7,166 a metric ton, erasing last week's 9% gain which was seen as a modest recovery.
* "The market has topped out and speculators are using rallies to get out," commodities analyst Lukas Kuemmerle said.
* "While cocoa has found renewed buying interest near $7,000 per metric ton, prompting the latest rally throughout the middle of last week, prices are likely to gradually retreat to levels closer to $5,000 per ton," he added.
* Dealers said the market remained volatile, though there were signs of consolidation after prices slumped by about 40% from a record high of $11,722 on April 19 to a low of $6,990 on May 3.
* Fundamentals remained supportive, with a large global deficit widely forecast in the current 2023/24 season after poor crops in Ivory Coast and Ghana.
* July London cocoa LCCc2 fell 20.7% to 6,000 pounds per ton.
SUGAR
* July raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.67 cent, or 3.5%, at 18.63 cents per lb after slumping to an 18-month low of 18.58 cents.
* Dealers said the strong pace of sugar production in the key Centre-South region of Brazil was helping to put the market on the defensive.
* Sugar industry group UNICA is expected to issue CS Brazil sugar production data covering the second half of April in the next few days with a year-on-year rise of about 50% anticipated.
* China's agriculture ministry forecast a 10.55% rise in sugar output in the 2024/25 season (October/September) to 11 million tons, driven by a rise in planted area.
* August white sugar LSUc1 fell 3.4% to $550.00 a ton.
COFFEE
* July robusta coffee LRCc2 settled down $41, or 1.2%, at $3,399 a ton.
* Dealers said more favourable crop weather in top robusta producer Vietnam and rising exchange stocks had helped to spark the recent price drop.
* July arabica coffee KCc2 fell 2.5% to $1.9605 per lb.
Reporting by Nigel Hunt and Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Ed Osmond, David Goodman and Shounak Dasgupta
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