The company, which sells sweeteners including corn syrup to food and soft drink makers, had warned last month that a cold spring in the United States had hurt sales.

Tate reiterated on Thursday that it expects to deliver profitable growth for the full-year to March 31 driven by higher sales and profit in its specialty food ingredient business, which includes zero-calorie sweeteners like Splenda.

The speciality business accounts for about 30 percent of the group's total sales and its products include high-intensity sweeteners, modified starches and oat proteins.

Tate's much-larger bulk ingredients business sells high-fructose corn syrup, industrial starches and ethanol.

The second-half performance in the bulk ingredients business should be better than in the year-ago period, Tate said.

Investec Securities analyst Martin Deboo said Tate & Lyle should be able to reverse the first-half profit decline due to positive trends in the speciality ingredient business, lower corn prices and one-off benefits.

"We are happy buyers this morning but think that the second-half challenge means this isn't going to be a get-rich-quick scheme," Deboo said in a research note.

Tate & Lyle shares were up 1 percent at 802.2 pence by 1030 GMT. The shares are up about 2 percent year-to-date, underperforming the broader FTSE 100 <.FTSE> which is up nearly 12 percent over the same period.

MEXICO TAX

The company said it was too early to judge the impact of a new tax on soft drinks in Mexico, passed by the country's Congress last month to try to tackle obesity levels.

Tate said it was too early to know whether the tax would be fully passed on to consumers and if so, how they would react.

"With all those variables, I think it's a bit too early to comment," Chief Executive Javed Ahmed told Reuters. He said Mexico accounts for about 12 to 15 percent of the bulk sweetener industry's North American sales volume.

"Even if there is a 5 to 10 percent reduction in consumption, it's not hugely material for the overall North American sweetener industry," Ahmed said, citing estimates he said were being bandied around.

Mexico approved the 1 peso-per-litre tax on sugary drinks and an 8 percent tax on junk food on October 31.

Tate & Lyle's adjusted earnings from continuing operations fell 2 percent to 29.9 pence per share for the six months to September 30. Analysts on average were expecting 29 pence, according to a company-provided consensus.

Sales rose 7 percent to 1.74 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller in London; editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Jane Merriman)

By Martinne Geller