LONDON (Bloomberg) -- Sugar rose for a fifth day in London on a weaker dollar and on speculation that India, the world’s biggest consumer, may have to increase imports to maintain stockpiles.

The Dollar Index, a six-currency gauge of the greenback’s performance, lost as much as 0.4 percent. Sugar inventories in India on Oct. 1 were 2.2 million metric tons, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday. The government asked mills to sell 2.08 million tons into the market last month and another 1.71 million tons this month.
“There’s going to be very low stocks going into the current crop cycle,” said Peter de Klerk, an analyst at C. Czarnikow Futures Ltd. in London. India will only start to harvest the bulk of its crop later this month, he said.
White, or refined, sugar for March delivery added $4.80, or 0.8 percent, to $611.80 a ton on the Liffe exchange by 11:33 a.m. local time. Prices have jumped 7.1 percent in the past week. Raw sugar for March delivery fell 0.5 percent to 23.86 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.
The Dollar Index slid before Wednesday’s outcome of a Federal Reserve monetary-policy meeting at which economists expect officials to keep interest rates near zero. Declines by the dollar make raw materials priced in the currency cheaper for holders of other monies. The Fed is scheduled to release a statement around 7:15 p.m. London time.
Indian prices
In Delhi, refined sugar prices have climbed 10 percent in the past week to 35,700 rupees ($759) a ton, de Klerk said. “Domestic prices have shot up on the lower releases” by the mills, he said.
Among other agricultural commodities traded on Liffe, cocoa for December delivery slipped 0.1 percent to 2,139 pounds ($3,537) a ton. Growers in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer, have sent 166,000 tons of beans to ports for export since Oct. 1, up from 89,119 tons a year earlier, Reuters reported yesterday.
“The crop is getting off to a good start,” said Nicholas Snowdon, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London. “With our expectations it’s going to be marginally higher year on year, you’re still going to have a market in deficit with a year-on- year demand improvement.”
The chocolate ingredient will average $3,300 a ton in the current quarter, Barclays forecasts, Snowdon said. So far, it’s averaged about $3,250 a ton.
Robusta coffee for January delivery climbed 0.3 percent to $1,456 a ton.