ICE Cocoa Closes In on 2-Year High, World Raw Sugar Near 7-Month High

  NEW YORK - Cocoa prices rose to near a two-year high on Thursday, on concerns

that supplies of the key chocolate ingredient would fall short of supply of

demand for the second consecutive season.

  Cocoa for delivery in December on ICE Futures U.S. rose 1% to $2,729 a ton,

the highest settlement for the most actively-traded contract since Oct. 28,

2011.

  Prices have gained 3.4% since the 2013-14 season began on Oct. 1. Global

cocoa supplies fell short of demand by 52,000 last season and demand will

likely outpace supplies by as much as 70,000 tons this year, according to the

International Cocoa Organization, a London industry group.

  Dry weather during the growing season in West Africa, the source of more than

two-thirds of the world's supply, has raised worries about the size and quality

of this season's crop.

  World raw-sugar futures ended near a seven-month high as Brazil's real firmed

to near a four-month high against the U.S. dollar. For Brazil, the world's

biggest sugar producer by volume, a stronger real discourages exports since

producers would receive fewer reais back for sweetener sold abroad in U.S.

dollars.

  "I haven't seen much selling today by producers," said Alex Oliveira, an

analyst at brokerage Newedge. "They're getting less reais now" for sugar

exports.

  Before the market closed, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, a

trade group known as Unica, reported that mills in the main center-south

growing region produced 2.3 million metric tons of sugar in the second half of

last month, 3.9% more than the same two-week period of 2012. That snapped

streak of year-on-year declines for two-week harvest periods since late June.

  While sugar-cane processing increased 7.5% year-on-year, to 34.2 million

tons, in the second half of September, the amount was 20% lower compared with

the first half of the month due to heavy rainfall.

  "The machines that perform the harvest cannot get into wet soil, which

compromised the pace of the harvest," said Antonio de Padua Rodrigues, Unica's

technical director.

  U.S. raw-sugar futures settled at an 8-month high, of 22 cents a pound, up

2.9% on the day.

  Arabica coffee for December fell 0.7% to $1.1440 a pound, after reaching a

more than two-week high earlier in the session.

  Frozen orange-juice concentrate for delivery in November fell 1.3% to end at

$1.2680 a pound. Cotton for December lost less than 0.1% to end at 83.17 cents

a pound, the lowest settlement since Sept. 5.