Insight Focus
The raw sugar futures traded below 16c/lb over the past week. End-users have taken the lower prices to their advantage and added to their cover heavily. Speculators currently hold the largest net-short position since the start of the bear market.
New York No.11 Raw Sugar Futures
Raw sugar futures traded below 16c/lb over the past week, starting the week at 15.6c/lb and closing at 15.8c/lb on Friday.
End-users took this to their advantage as they continued extending their cover, adding just under 31k lots of long positions. Producers on the other hand, closed out 15.9k lots of short positions. The net commercial position has now flipped to be net-long for the first time since 2019.
Speculators have further closed out 6k lots of long positions and added to their short cover heavily by 26.8k lots of speculative short positions.
No.11 Commitment of Traders Report (September 9, 2025)
Speculators are currently net-short in the sugar market by -182,608 lots. This is the largest net-short position speculators have held since the start of the bear market. This is also the largest net-short position speculators have held since November 2019.
No.11 Open interest
The No.11 forward curve has strengthened between Oct’25 to Mar’27 but has weakened from here onwards.
London No.5 Refined Sugar Futures
The Oct’25 refined sugar futures contract expires today. Over the last week, prices traded at USD 479.9/tonne, reaching a high of USD 489.9/tonne on Wednesday and eventually closing at USD 485.2/tonne on Friday.
No.5 Open Interest
The No.5 forward curve has strengthened between Oct’25 to Aug’26 but has weakened across the remainder of the board.
White Premium (Arbitrage)
The V/V white premium is also set to expire today. The V/V white premium started trading at USD 135.1/tonne at the start of the week and hit a high of USD 139.4/tonne on Thursday before it eventually closed at USD 137.1/tonne.
For a more detailed view of the sugar futures and market data, please refer to the appendix below.
No.11 (Raw Sugar) Appendix
No.5 (White Sugar) Appendix
White Premium Appendix
