* Dealers eye Egypt sugar tender
* Concerns remain over Ivory Coast cocoa exports
(Adds details, quotes, background, updates prices)
By Sarah McFarlane and David Brough
LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Soft commodity prices bounced higher on Monday, in line with other commodity markets following last week's sharp sell-off.
Commodities bounced some way back on Monday from their biggest weekly drop since 2008, revived by a weaker dollar and strong U.S. jobs data, which helped restore some confidence to a shaken investment community.
"In the short term, prices are going to remain vulnerable to any moves in external markets, any moves in the U.S. dollar and any sense around risk aversion and risk reduction," said Sudakshina Unnikrishnan, an analyst at Barclays Capital.
Sugar futures rose from near eight-month lows following a lead from stronger oil and a weaker dollar, dealers said.
ICE July raw sugar futures rose 0.28 cent or 1.4 percent to 20.75 cents a lb at 1403 GMT, after dipping to an eight-month low of 20.40 cents on Friday.
"Twenty cents is a key bottom area," one dealer said.
ICE sugar remained down more than 40 percent from its 30-year peak of 36.08 cents a lb touched on Feb. 2.
"We expect the market in the short term to correct a little from the relentless downside pressure over the last nine sessions, but overall, expect further downside over the medium term," said Thomas Kujawa of brokerage Sucden Financial.
Large supplies in the pipeline from Brazil and Thailand are bearish for the market as they are expected to shift the supply and demand balance sheet into surplus in 2011/12.
Dealers talked of a pick-up of physical sugar enquiries at the low prices.
Egypt's state-owned Sugar and Integrated Industries Company (SIIC) was tendering on Monday to buy raw sugar, European trade sources said.
One senior physical trade source told Reuters the SIIC was tendering to buy 100,000 tonnes of raw sugar for May-June and September shipment.
Liffe August white sugar fell $1.80 or 0.3 percent to $580.20 per tonne at 1409 GMT, above the eight-month low of $571.90 hit on Thursday.
COFFEE, COCOA
Coffee prices were also stronger, although arabicas' rise outpaced robustas as tight supplies of high quality beans underpinned New York prices.
ICE July arabica coffee rose 1.1 cent or 0.4 percent to $2.8865 per lb at 1417 GMT, while Liffe July robustas were unchanged at $2,598 a tonne.
Dealers said that large European exchange stocks and expected production increases from robusta exporting countries weighed on the London market.
Coffee farmers in Vietnam are ploughing gains from steadily rising prices into fertiliser and water pumps to incrementally lift yields.
"Indonesian farmers are investing, production capacity should be increasing slowly," a European trader said, adding historically high robusta prices were providing an incentive.
Cocoa prices were swept up in the rise across commodity markets as dealers monitored the first shipments of cocoa coming out of top producer Ivory Coast in months.
"For cocoa there still remains concerns about the level of exports coming out of the Ivory Coast, not because supply is an issue but because of financing," Barclays Capital's Unnikrishnan said.
Ivory Coast resumed cocoa bean exports on Sunday, more than three months after they were halted by the country's political conflict, officials and a Reuters witness said.
ICE second-month, July cocoa was up $22, or 0.7 percent at $3,104 per tonne at 1419 GMT, while London July cocoa traded up 19 pounds or 1 percent at 1,909 pounds a tonne. (Reporting by Sarah McFarlane and David Brough, editing by William Hardy)