October raw sugar was down 0.01 cent, or 0.1%, at 11.79 cents per lb by 1419 GMT with its discount to March widening to 0.91 cent from around 0.85 cent at the close on Wednesday.
Dealers said a short-term surplus remained despite an expected tightening in supplies during the 2019/20 season which had limited the appetite to take delivery against the October contract.
They noted the open interest on October, as of Wednesday, showed another significant fall of 23,487 lots, or around 38%, to 37,725 lots.
March raws was up 0.04 cent, or 0.3%, at 12.70 cents per lb after rising to a peak of 12.72 cents, the highest for the second position since Aug. 16.
Dealers said the expected global deficit in 2019/20 should underpin prices in coming weeks.
"It seems the lows are in place for the time being. We are going to go back into a deficit," a dealer said.
December white sugar was up $0.90, or 0.3%, at $340.50 per tonne, having hit a six-month high of $342.
Indian mills are struggling to export surplus sugar even after a subsidy announced by New Delhi, the chairman of commodities consultant LMC International said, citing low global sugar prices.
December arabica coffee rose 0.60 cent, or 0.6%, to $1.0155 per lb.
Arabica prices have steadied since hitting three-month lows in mid-August amid concerns the 2020 crop in top producer Brazil may not be as large as initially expected, partly due to a prolonged period of depressed prices.
The first flowering of the new Brazilian coffee crop has been spotted over the last few days.
November robusta coffee was up $9, or 0.7%, at $1,318 a tonne, having hit a high since late August at $1,325.
December New York cocoa was up $27, or 1.1%, at $2,496 a tonne after rising to a peak of $2,499, its highest since July 26.
Cocoa has rebounded strongly after hitting a 2019 low of $2,165 in August but scope for further gains is limited as the supply outlook improves.
Ivory Coast's 2019/20 cocoa main crop is expected to be between 1.65 million and 1.7 million tonnes, broadly in line with the 1.66 million tonnes of the previous season, a Reuters poll showed.
March London cocoa rose 13 pounds, or 0.7%, to 1,880 pounds a tonne.