Indian yield hits sugar prices abroad

White sugar fell the most in a month in London on speculation that the harvest in India, the world���s largest importer, will reduce the need for overseas purchases.

India���s crop may total 15-16 million tonnes (mt) in the season that started this month, the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories said last month. Output was 15 mt a year earlier, the agriculture ministry said. Sugar prices in London have jumped 83% this year, partly on speculation India would need to increase imports.

���India has been the main driver and it is now harvesting its own crop,��� said Nick Hungate, a trader with Rabobank in London. ���Right now is not the time for them to be buying.���

White sugar for December delivery dropped as much as $32.90, or 5.6%, to $553.90 a tonne, the biggest intra-day decline since September 4. It was trading at $564.30 a tonne at 12:24 pm on the Liffe exchange. Prices in Vashi, a major wholesale market for the commodity, have dropped 15% since September 5.

Raw sugar for March delivery retreated 3.6% to 22.28 cents a pound on ICE Futures US in New York and earlier fell to 21.8 cents, the lowest since August 7. New York futures are up 89% this year.

Investors ���have made good money in sugar and some are taking money off the table,��� Mr Hungate said. Rains that have curbed supplies in Brazil, the world���s largest grower, will improve prospects for next year���s crop, he said.

Among other crops, robusta coffee for November delivery advanced 1.5% to $1,458 a tonne, the third consecutive gain. Coffee bean exports from Indonesia���s main producing provinces on Sumatra island tumbled almost 15% to 39,435 tonnes in September, the third consecutive monthly decline, because of a holiday and low prices, data from the Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters showed on Thursday.

Indonesia, with the world���s largest Muslim population, marked the festival at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan on September 20. Coffee prices have dropped 5.6% this year.