SOFTS-Raw sugar slips further from recent peak; coffee also down

Updates with closing prices, weekly changes and comments

NEW YORK/LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Raw sugar futures fell on Friday, with the market slipping further from a six-year peak set earlier in the week, while coffee and cocoa prices also eased.

There was from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

SUGAR

* March raw sugar SBc1 ​​settled down 0.42 cents, or 1.9%, at 21.24 cents per lb, having hit a six-year peak of 21.86 cents on Wednesday. The contract gained 1.3% in the week, after rising 6.3% in the previous week.

* Dealers said the market's recent rise was driven partly by lower-than-expected production in India, which heightened concern about tight supplies.

* Heavy rainfall in India, the world's second-largest producer, has led to a reduction in sugar cane crushing and "catalysed an upward move in sugar prices", Fitch Solutions said in a note on Friday.

* Brazil's decision to end a tax exemption on imports of fuel ethanol could also potentially lead to more use of cane to produce the biofuel domestically at the expense of sugar.

* March white sugar LSUc1 fell $15.50, or 2.7%, at $551.30 a tonne. The contract lost 2% in the week.

COFFEE

* March arabica coffee KCc1 settled down 5.1 cents, or 2.9%, at $1.728 per lb​, extending its retreat from Wednesday's three-month high of $1.8420. The contract, however, posted a 1.7% gain in the week.

* The market has been supported by fund short-covering, strong physical premiums on Brazil and some talk that production in the world's top grower could be lower than previously expected in the coming 2023/24 season.

* Trader Comexim expects the new Brazilian crop to grow 10%, but revised downwards its view for the current season.

* March robusta coffee LRCc1 fell $18, or 0.9%, at $2,031 a tonne. It lost 1% in the week.

* Total global coffee exports in December fell 7.7% from the same month a year earlier to 9.81 million 60kg bags, the International Coffee Organization said.

COCOA

* March New York cocoa CCc1​​settled down $14, or 0.5%, to $2,569 a tonne. The contract lost 2% in the week.

* March London cocoa LCCc1fell 13 pounds, or 0.6%, to 1,999 pounds per tonne​​.

(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira and Nigel Hunt; Editing by David Goodman and Jonathan Oatis)

((marcelo.teixeira@tr.com; +1 332 220 8062; Reuters Messaging: marcelo.teixeira.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net - https://twitter.com/tx_marcelo))

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