Spot cocoa futures were on track to finish higher for a fourth straight year, making them the biggest gainer in the Thomson Reuters/CoreCommodity CRB Index. "Fears of a deficit have driven the market up," a London cocoa futures broker said. London March cocoa was up 3 pounds at 2,254 pounds per tonne at 1253 GMT. ICE March New York cocoa was up $4 at $3,233 per tonne.
Robusta coffee futures ended 2015 down 20.1 percent on the year, weighed down by a huge carryover of stocks from the previous crop in top grower Vietnam where low prices had prompted producers to resist selling. ICE March robusta coffee settled up $15 at $1,530 per tonne. Arabica coffee futures were set to fall by around 27 percent for 2015, driven by higher-than-expected exports from top producer Brazil, and a weakening Brazilian real currency which boosted incentives for exports.
ICE March arabica coffee was up 0.15 cents at $1.2380 per pound, after trading as high as $1.2405 a pound, a 2-1/2-week high. Raw sugar was a strong 2015 performer, set to end the year up around 8 percent, as the global market shifted into deficit after years of surpluses. "The strong performance in the second half of 2015 reflects the market's growing realisation that the global outlook will swing to a significant deficit in 2016," said John Stansfield, senior analyst, Group Sopex.
"One of the biggest drivers of the impending deficit is the very poor European Union beet crop," he added. A tighter supply outlook, compounded by heavy rains at the tail end of the Brazilian cane crush, as well as higher-than-expected consumption, led analysts to revise up deficit forecasts. ICE March raw sugar was up 0.05 cent at 15.20 cents per pound. ICE March white sugar ended 2015 up 7.9 percent, settling up $3.20 to close the year at $422.20 a tonne.