By M. Shankar
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- White sugar rose to the highest in four months in London on a shortage of supply and plans by Iraq to buy through a tender. Robusta coffee and cocoa also gained.
The Iraqi Foodstuffs Trading Company, an affiliate of the country’s Trade Ministry, plans the tender for at least 12,500 metric tons of white sugar, F.O. Licht, a Ratzeburg, Germany- based research company, said in a report. The country consumes about 700,000 tons of sugar a year, it added.
“The company usually buys much more than the amount it tenders for,” F.O. Licht said in the report yesterday.
White sugar for May delivery, the most actively traded contact, rose $5.60, or 1.5 percent, to $382.80 a ton as of 12:40 p.m. on London’s Liffe exchange. It earlier climbed to $384.70, the highest for sugar prices since Oct. 2. The sweetener has gained 20 percent this year, outperforming the 0.8 percent drop in the CMCI Bloomberg Index of 26 raw commodities.
Raw sugar traded on ICE Futures U.S. climbed 1.1 percent to 13.12 cents a pound in New York.
Global sugar use will reach 162.1 million tons this year, exceeding supply of 158.8 million tons, according to a forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Among other agricultural commodities in London, robusta coffee for March delivery advanced $7, or 0.4 percent, to $1,656 a ton. Cocoa for May delivery rallied 12 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to 1,955 pounds ($2,865).
There’s a general “interest in soft commodities,” said Nick Hungate, a senior trader at Rabobank International in London.
To contact the reporter on this story: M. Shankar in London at mshankar@bloomberg.net
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