SOFTS-Raw sugar near 3-week high; coffee, cocoa gain

NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) -

Raw sugar futures on ICE hit their highest in nearly three weeks on Friday, thanks to lingering uncertainty over India's export policy and as global

equities and oil

prices rose on reports China may relax its COVID rules.

SUGAR

* March raw sugar settled up 0.24 cent, or 1.3%, at 18.71 cents per lb, having hit a near three-week top at $18.82.

* Dealers noted the market was still waiting for news from India, a top sugar producer, as to how much sugar it will allow traders to ship this season, plus there is uncertainty on output from Brazil.

* In news, Indonesia, one of the world's top raw sugar importers, will expand its sugar plantation area to try to become self-sufficient in the next five years and is eyeing development of renewable sugar-based ethanol afterwards.

* December white sugar rose $3.10, or 0.6%, to $539.00 a tonne.

COFFEE

* March arabica coffee rose 3.3 cents, or 2.0%, to $1.7165 per lb, recovering after Thursday's 4.9% slump pushed the market back near a recent 15-month low of $1.6595.

* Bets that Brazil will produce a bumper crop next year have helped put arabica on the defensive, while there are widespread worries about a demand downturn as global growth slows.

* Traders said ICE certified stocks are set to get a boost after reaching the lowest level in 23 years.

* Starbucks topped estimates for quarterly comparable sales on Thursday.

* Colombia produced 888,000 60-kg bags of washed arabica coffee in October, the national coffee federation said, down 12% from the same month last year because of heavy rain.

* January robusta coffee rose $27, or 1.5%, at $1,869 a tonne.

COCOA

* December New York cocoa rose $62, or 2.6%, to $2,434 a tonne, having hit its highest since early June at $2,459.

* Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Council has set a Nov. 20 deadline for cocoa buyers to pay a "living income differential" (LID) of $400 per tonne of cocoa on all contracts sold by Ivory Coast or Ghana.

* March London cocoa rose 44 pounds, or 2.3%, to 1,996 pounds per tonne. (Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira and Maytaal Angel; Editing by Alison Williams, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Shinjini Ganguli)