By Julie Wernau 
 

Coffee futures rose for the first time in eight sessions Wednesday on signs of an uptick in demand in consuming regions.

Arabica coffee for March delivery ended up 1.4% at $1.201 a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange. Several agricultural commodities rose after the Federal Reserve increased its projection for economic growth, with officials expecting the economy to grow at a 2.5% rate this year and next. In September, those projections were 2.4% and 2.1% respectively.

On Wednesday, Rabobank released a report showing a 6.5% year-over-year growth in net import growth in 17 non-coffee producing countries, with strong net imports into Turkey, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and Argentina.

The firm said it expects arabica prices to end 2018 at $1.34 a pound. However, the firm downgraded its projections for a supply-demand deficit in coffee in 2017/2018 due to an expected uptick in production and lower demand.

In other markets, raw sugar for March rose 0.6% to end at 13.85 cents a pound, cocoa for March was up 1.1% to close at $1,888 a ton, frozen concentrated orange juice for January lost 1% to settle at $1.4845 a pound, and March cotton rose 1.7% to settle at 74.13 cents a pound.

Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 13, 2017 17:11 ET (22:11 GMT)