Outside morning review: cocoa futures hit a three-and-a-half-year high Arabica coffee futures rose sharply

New YORK / London (Reuters)-Cocoa futures jumped on Wednesday, returning to a three-and-a-half-year high on fears that the spread of Ebola in West Africa could drag down exports from the world's largest cocoa-producing region.

ICE Arabica coffee futures jumped nearly 5%, helped by technical buy signals and concerns about recent dry weather in Brazil, the largest grower of coffee beans. Benchmark raw sugar futures fell to rise as Brazil's latest harvest report showed a slowdown in sugarcane crushing.

ICE December cocoa futures closed up $74, or 2.2%, at $3371 a tonne on concerns about the spread of Ebola to C ô te d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), hitting an intraday high of $3379 since May 2011. The contract fell on Tuesday after seven consecutive days of gains.

London Liffe- March cocoa futures closed up 45 pounds, or 2.2%, at 2112 pounds a tonne, hitting the highest level of 2114 pounds since March 2011.

ICE- December Arabica coffee futures jumped 8.20 cents, or 4.5%, to close at $1.891 a pound and jumped 4.9% to $1.898 during the day.

Liffe- November Robusta coffee futures closed up $36, or 1.9%, at $1965 a tonne.

ICE- October sugar futures closed up 47 cents, or 3.3%, at 14.62 cents a pound, while the October / March contract discount SB-1=R narrowed to 1.28 cents from 1.54 cents on Tuesday. The October contract expires on Sept. 30.

The most actively traded March raw sugar contract fell to a rise, closing up 0.17 cents, or 1.1%, at $15.90 per pound.

Liffe- December sugar futures closed up $3.40, or 0.8%, at $415.50 a tonne.