CME Group eyes Black Sea future
CME Group said yesterday it would launch a Black Sea wheat futures contract in June, if approved by regulators, marking the exchange’s first foray into a non-US based wheat contract. Tim Andriesen, managing director for Agricultural Commodities and Alternative Investments for the CME group, said “We firmly believe this contract will not only establish an effective forward market for regional wheat prices, but has the potential to develop into a true regional benchmark pricing tool for wheat.”
However, traders warned that it could prove challenging to trade wheat from a region that accounts for an estimated quarter of the global wheat trade but that is prone to export restrictions and has cash markets that are not well defined.