Raw sugar futures sank Tuesday to their lowest level in almost a month, hit by fund sales and early hedge pressure from the start of the harvest in Brazil's prime centre-south region, analysts said.
US cocoa futures slid to a three-month low along with the rest of the complex, except for arabica futures which were buoyed by modest bout of short-covering.
The key May raw sugar contract on ICE bottomed at 23.80 cents a lb to set the lowest for the spot price since March 13.
It finished down 0.56 cent at 23.87 cents per lb which marked the lowest settlement since March 12, Thomson Reuters data showed.
London's white sugar contract lost $13.80 or 2.14 percent to close at $630.10 per tonne.
"We are definitely getting hedge pressure (in sugar)," said Country Hedging Inc analyst Sterling Smith.
Some of the selling pressure emanated from news that Brazil's government crop supply agency Conab said Brazil's sugar production should rise 5.3 percent to 38.9 million tonnes in 2012/13.
White sugar speculators cut their net long position by 977 lots to 8,736 lots as of April 3, according to NYSE Liffe Commitments of Trade data.
Dealers said index funds were rolling positions ahead of the expiry of the ICE May contract on April 30, but it was too early to accurately predict the size of the delivery tonnage.
July cocoa on ICE fell $48 or 2.2 percent to finish at $2,070 per tonne, with the session low at $2,058 the lowest for the second position contract since January 6.
London May cocoa dropped 43 pounds or 3 percent to close at 1,378 pounds per tonne.
May/July spreading continued to be heavy ahead of the May contract's first notice day on April 17.
The activity caused the spread to narrow sharply, reaching nearly par levels, with May reaching roughly a $6 discount to July, tightening quickly after trading at around a $23 discount two sessions previous.
Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached around 1,049,000 tonnes by April 9, exporters estimated on Monday, compared with 1,038,928 tonnes in the same period of the previous season.
Arabica coffee futures on ICE rose while robustas slipped in quiet trade.
May arabicas on ICE rose 0.10 cent to end at $1.7815 per lb.
The benchmark May contract continues to move to its own rhythm as it is stuck in a range between $1.74-$1.90 per lb.
Liffe's May robusta coffee futures declined $12 to close at $1,975 per tonne.
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