Sugar rose in London, heading for the first weekly climb in three weeks, after output plunged in Brazil’s main producing region. Coffee and cocoa gained. Sugar production in the Center South fell 69 percent to 795,000 metric tons between the start of the harvest in mid- March and the end of April, industry association Unica said yesterday. Output was 2.56 million tons a year earlier. Brazil is the world’s biggest sugar producer, while India ranks second and Thailand is the No. 2 exporter. “Everyone was counting on India and Thailand and forgot about Brazil,” Connor Noonan, an analyst at Castlestone Management Ltd. in London, said in an e-mail today. The Unica figures “could change the picture,” he said. White, or refined, sugar for August delivery climbed $2.90, or 0.5 percent, to $605 a ton by 9:28 a.m. on NYSE Liffe in London. Prices are up 4 percent this week. Raw sugar for July delivery rose 0.29 cent, or 1.4 percent, to 21.62 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York after reaching 21.83 cents. Sugar supplies may outpace demand by 1 million tons in the 2010-11 season ending in September on higher output in Thailand and India, the International Sugar Organization said May 5. It had predicted a 200,000-ton surplus in February. Output in India’s Maharashtra state, the nation’s biggest producer, will reach a record 9.15 million tons in the year ending Sept. 30, Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd. said this week. Thai cane output may climb to a record 94 million tons, with sugar output of about 9.6 million tons, according to the Office of the Cane & Sugar Board. Coffee Advances Robusta coffee for July delivery gained $12, or 0.5 percent, to $2,523 a ton in London. Arabica coffee for July delivery was up 1.3 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $2.7625 a pound in New York. Production in Colombia, the second-largest grower of arabica beans, fell 19 percent in April to a 15-month low of 523,000 bags because of damage to crops from storms last year, according to the country’s National Federation of Coffee Growers. Cocoa for July delivery climbed 11 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to 1,885 pounds ($3,070) a ton on NYSE Liffe. Cocoa for July delivery rose $16, or 0.5 percent, to $3,053 a ton on ICE. To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at ialmeida3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.

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