Insight Focus
No.11 and No.5 sugar futures ended last week relatively unchanged from a week earlier. Speculators have increased their net short to the highest it’s ever been. Producers have been closing their short positions leaving commercials net long overall.
New York No.11 Raw Sugar Futures
March 2026 No.11 raw sugar futures started the week at 14.2c/lb. Although they reached highs of 14.7c/lb mid-week, by Friday they had settled lower at 14.1c/lb.
Last week producers closed 18.1k of short positions while end-users increased their commercial longs by another 39.6k lots. As a result, commercials are now net long.
No.11 Commitment of Traders Report (February 3, 2026)
In contrast speculators heavily increased their short positions by 58.3k lots, while only adding another 1.2k lots of long positions.
This leaves the speculative net short position at -239,232, which is the largest it’s ever been.
No.11 Open interest
The No.11 forward curve edged very slightly lower than a week earlier. The March/May 2026 spread remains positive. However, after this, the market is in contango till March/May 2027.
London No.5 Refined Sugar Futures
Like the No.11, refined sugar futures rose in the middle of the week, but by the end of it settled virtually unchanged at USD 404/tonne.
No.5 Open Interest
While the March and May 2026 No.5 contracts ended the week unchanged, the forward curve did weaken.
As we approach expiry, we’ve also seen market participants roll their March 2026 positions, and May 2026 now has a higher open interest.
White Premium (Arbitrage)
After some weakness the previous week, the H/H white premium did recover to trade back above USD 90/tonne last week.
For a more detailed view of the sugar futures and market data, please refer to the appendix below.
No.11 (Raw Sugar) Appendix
No.11 Speculative Positioning
No.11 Open Interest
No.5 (White Sugar) Appendix
White Premium Appendix
