Softs: Raw sugar futures hit five-year low on ample supplies, oil price falls

Barry Callebaut AG

17/04/2026 20:14

Includes comments, weekly price moves

NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters) -
Raw sugar futures hit a five-year low on Friday as they headed for a third consecutive week of losses on ample near-term supplies and a sharp
oil price fall
.

Falling energy prices are bearish for sugar because they can encourage cane mills to produce more sugar and less ethanol, a cane-based biofuel.

SUGAR

* Raw sugar SBc1 settled down 0.35 cent, or 2.6%, at 13.31 cents per lb, having earlier hit a five-year low of 13.22. The contract lost 3.2% in the week.

* White sugar LSUc1 fell 1.4% to $412.30 a metric ton.

* Oil prices plunged after Iran's foreign minister said passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz was open for the remaining ceasefire period.

* Brazil's national crop agency Conab raised its forecast for the country's 2025/26 sugarcane harvest by 1% from its previous estimate to 673 million tons.

        * The front-month white sugar contract expired on Wednesday, with a record of nearly half a million tons delivered. Large deliveries usually mean sugar could not achieve a better price in the physical markets.

* Broker StoneX said the data reinforced the view that there is high availability and that it "opens the door to a scenario of strong price pressure over the coming months".

* The broker also noted sugar demand is weak due to a "significant shift in global food consumption patterns".

COCOA

* London cocoa LCCc2 ​settled down 104 pounds, or 4.1%, at 2,427 pounds per ton. It was little changed in the week.

* Thursday's first-quarter cocoa grind data, a measure of demand, was weaker than expected in Europe and North America, though figures for Asia were strong.

* Brazil cocoa grind down 0.8% in the first quarter from a year earlier.

* First-half results on Thursday from the leading global cocoa processor and chocolate maker Barry Callebaut were also weak, although the group forecast a return to volume growth in the six months to end-September.

* New York cocoa CCc2 fell 5.1% to $3,280 a ton.

COFFEE

* Robusta coffee LRCc2 settled down $84, or 2.5%, at $3,263 a ton, though it remained above last week's eight-month low.

* A robusta trader in the biggest producer Vietnam said lower prices had stimulated demand.

* Arabica coffee KCc2 fell 2.1% to $2.8425 per lb. The contract lost 3.9% for the week.

 (Reporting by May Angel and Marcelo Teixeira; editing by Barbara Lewis, Louise Heavens and Maju Samuel)

 ((marcelo.teixeira@tr.com; +1 332 220 8062; https://x.com/tx_marcelo))