(Adds comments and closing prices)
NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) –
Raw sugar futures on ICE fell on Friday with the focus on the expiry of the March contract, while coffee and cocoa also closed down.
* Raw sugar futures settled down 0.18 cent, or 0.9%, at 19.51 cents per lb. The contract lost 8.4% in the week.
* Dealers said the premium for the March contract to May
had fallen sharply to around 0.59 cents from as high as 1.61 cents earlier this week ahead of its expiry on Friday.
* Deliveries of raw sugar on the expiry of the March contract were seen at 34,385 lots, or 1.74 million metric tons, the largest ever for that contract, according to preliminary information from traders on Friday.
* Large deliveries are usually seen as bearish for the market.
* White sugar fell 1.3% at $532.60 a metric ton, having lost 4.9% weekly.
* Indian mills produced 21.98 million metric tons of sugar between October 1 and February 28, down 14% from the previous year, on lower output from key producing states Maharashtra and Karnataka, a industry body said.
* New York cocoa settled down $131, or 1.4%, to $9,124 a ton. It was flat for the week.
* BMI said in a note that there were concerns that demand was easing in the face of elevated prices. Prices have tripled in the last two years.
* The International Cocoa Organization on Friday forecast there would be a global cocoa surplus of 142,000 metric tons in the 2024/25 season (October-September).
* London cocoa fell 1.5% to 7,342 pounds per ton.
* Arabica coffee was little changed at $3.7305 per lb. The contract lost 4.1% in the week.
* Dealers said the market appeared to have stabilised after tumbling from a record peak of $4.2995, set on Feb. 11, to a low of $3.6630 on Wednesday.
* Robusta coffee fell 0.9% at $5,330 a ton, having lost 7% in the week. (Reporting by Nigel Hunt and Marcelo Teixeira; editing by David Evans, Ros Russell and Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
