Robust Harvest In Brazil Sparks Big Sugar Loss

Sugar futures fell more than 5% Thursday as a pickup in Brazil's harvest encouraged a sell-off.

October sugar on ICE fell 1.07 cents to 22.50 cents per pound, having touched a one-week low of 22.25 cents earlier in the session.

Sugar came under pressure from higher-than-expected cane crushing figures from Brazil's industry association Wednesday.

Dealers said the bearish news from Brazil, combined with improving weather conditions in India, helped trigger sell-stops.

"With a return to a normal weather pattern, the region (Brazil's center-south) crushed over 40 million metric tons of cane in a fortnight for the first time this season," said ANZ Bank in a report. "The improvement in production is positive for short term supply, adding to the weaker tone to October 2012 prices seen in recent sessions."

India's crucial monsoon rains will improve in coming days, its weather office chief said on Thursday, which should narrow the shortfall in rainfall for the current rainy season that began in June.

India will convene its specialist panel of ministers on drought early next week to review the monsoon situation, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said, the first time since the drought year of 2009, as this year's rains fall below average.

The global sugar surplus remains on target to fall in the 2012-13 season, though declines will be less than previously suggested, while adverse weather in several producers may stop prices dropping far below recent levels, a Reuters poll showed.