By Julie Wernau

Cotton prices edged higher Thursday on robust sales of U.S. cotton overseas.

Cotton for March delivery rose 0.9% to 64.06 cents a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.

Net sales of upland cotton, the most common variety grown in the U.S., had their best week this marketing year, which began Oct. 1. Sales rose 7% week-on-week to 287,100 bales in the week ended Nov. 26. That compares with 167,000 bales a year earlier.

The news came on the tail of lower cotton production estimates in the world market.

This week, the International Cotton Advisory Committee said it expects world ending stocks to fall by 6% to 20.7 million tons this year, or about 85% of the volume needed for world mill use in a year.

While cotton consumption is slowing, according to the committee, with imports expected to decline by 3% to 7.4 million tons, falling for the fourth consecutive years, production is expected to fall at a faster rate, down 12% to 23.1 million tons, 1.3 million tons lower than projected demand.

"Production losses have been reported in both India and Pakistan and seem to be increasing as both countries saw below normal monsoon rains in production areas. Some trade sources there estimate the production losses in both countries at 30% or more," Jack Scoville, vice president of Price futures group said in a note.

In other markets, coffee and sugar prices rose as the currency of Brazil staged its third session of gains against the dollar, encouraging producers in the world's largest growing region for both commodities to hold back on sales until exchange rates improve for their dollar-denominated goods. Arabica coffee for March delivery rose 3.7% to $1.2485 a pound and raw sugar for March was up 1.4% to 15.55 cents a pound.

Frozen concentrated orange-juice futures shed 0.4% to $1.40 a pound and cocoa for March was up 1.3% to $3,377 a ton.

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