Raw sugar futures held steady in New York as traders mull rising output from India against estimates that mills in top grower Brazil may divert more cane to making ethanol rather than the sweetener.

Indian buyers have secured large purchases of soybean oil for the four months to July, a rare move in anticipation of rising prices of rival palm oil.

China’s exports of soybean oil to India are surging as weak domestic demand for the cooking ingredient coincides with robust imports of soybeans from South America and, more recently, the US.