Sugar declined from a 30-year high on concern that higher prices may lessen demand for the sweetener. Coffee gained, while cocoa was unchanged. Sugar consumption is down because of higher prices, while sales of artificial sweeteners have been rising, Michael McDougall, a senior vice president at Newedge USA, said yesterday in a report. “The market weakened because of lack of buying,” said Jeff Bauml, a senior vice president at R.J. O’Brien & Associates, a broker in New York. Raw sugar for March delivery declined 0.56 cent, or 1.6 percent, to settle at 33.83 cents a pound at 2 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the commodity reached 34.77 cents, the highest for a most-active contract since November 1980. “The fundamentals are very bullish,” said Sterling Smith, an analyst at Country Hedging Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota. In London, refined-sugar futures for March delivery rose $6, or 0.7 percent, to $826.40 a metric ton on NYSE Liffe. Earlier, the price reached $835.80, the highest since at least 1989. Arabica-coffee futures for March delivery rose 0.35 cent, or 0.1 percent, to $2.3965 a pound in New York. In London, robusta-coffee futures for March delivery gained $27, or 1.4 percent, to $2,024 a ton. Cocoa futures for March delivery were unchanged at $3,065 a ton in New York. In London, cocoa futures for March delivery rose 17 pounds, or 0.8 percent, to 2,053 pounds ($3,183) a ton. To contact the reporter on this story: Debarati Roy in New York at droy5@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick McKiernan at pmckiernan@bloomberg.net.

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