NEW YORK, May 5 (Reuters) - Raw sugar futures on the ICE exchange were trading higher on Monday, recovering from a 3-1/2-year low hit on Friday that saw the sweetener fall below the 17-cent level. New York cocoa was sharply down.

There was no trading for London cocoa, white sugar and robusta coffee futures due to a local holiday in the United Kingdom.

SUGAR

* Raw sugar SBc1 ​​was trading up 1.28% by 1525 GMT to 17.42 cents per lb, having hit its lowest since July 2021 at 16.97 cents on Friday. The first position lost 5.4% last week.

* "The market appears to be finding some additional buying/short covering from Friday's performance," said the McDougall Global View Sugar Report.

*"The liquidity will be reduced as today the UK is closed, so no London whites market. China as well is closed and they are the ones that have been showing the buying interest," it said.

* Speculators' short positions in sugar were little changed last week, the CFTC said.

* Brazil's Copersucar, one of the world's largest sugar and ethanol companies, said on Monday it had reached a deal to sell and distribute ethanol produced at Green Plains' GPRE.O plants in the United States.

COCOA

* New York cocoa CCc2 was down 4.1% at 1525 GMT to $8,515 a metric ton. The contract lost 5% last week.

* There is concern in the United States market that demand for chocolate could be hurt further by the 10% tariffs on imports of cocoa and cocoa products, said Jack Scoville from The Price Group in Chicago.

* Demand has fallen due to the sharp price jump for cocoa last year amid falling production.

COFFEE

* Arabica coffee KCc2 was gaining 1.2% at $3.9005 per lb at 1525 GMT, having set a 2-1/2-month high of $4.1890 last week.

* The market's focus remains on the upcoming harvest in top grower Brazil, with field work already going on in the robusta producing areas. The arabica harvest usually starts around May or June.

* Two large U.S. coffee companies, Starbucks and Keurig Dr Pepper, reported falls in coffee sales in the first quarter as higher prices hit demand.

(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

((marcelo.teixeira@tr.com; +1 332 220 8062; Reuters Messaging: marcelo.teixeira.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net - https://x.com/tx_marcelo))