NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Prices for cocoa, the main chocolate-making ingredient, rose to the highest in 46 years on Tuesday on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in New York as limited production in Africa is driving the industry to tap into the exchange's available stocks.

The March New York cocoa contract rose $71, or 1.7%, to $4,201 a metric ton after touching a peak of $4,219, the highest price since September 1977.

Dealers said the market continued to derive support from tightening supplies, with adverse weather in West Africa set to lead to a third successive global deficit in the current 2023/24 season (October/September).

Available cocoa stocks at ICE's certified warehouses, both in Europe and North America, have been falling for several months, giving an additional boost to prices.

"ICE stocks became an alternative for short-term supplies," said Leonardo Rossetti, a cocoa analyst with broker StoneX.

"In the last months we saw many market participants opting to receive this cocoa at the exchange, and almost nothing has been delivered," he said.

Cocoa deliveries, or the amount of beans that reach ports in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the two largest global producers, to be exported, have been lagging the previous year and there are no signs of improvement.

"Conditions in West Africa continues to cause concern for the end users in both London and New York," said a U.S.-based cocoa trader, adding the weaker dollar was also a boost to prices in New York.

" The move through the previous high of $4,147 signaled the bull trend remains intact, which triggered fresh longs into the market and may have stopped out weak shorts," he said.

March London cocoa rose 48 pounds, or 1.4%, to 3,527 pounds a ton.

In other soft commodities, the March raw sugar contract fell 0.21 cent, or 0.8%, to 26.99 cents per lb after equalling the previous session's one-month low of 26.80 cents.

Dealers said the strong pace of production in Brazil was keeping the market on the defensive. The March contract for refined sugar fell 1% to $738.20 a ton.

March arabica coffee settled up 4.05 cents, or 2.4%, at $1.731 per lb, while robusta coffee fell 0.3% at $2,539 a ton.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt and Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by David Goodman and Shailesh Kuber)