CME Group to Add Spring Wheat Futures Contract – Northern Ag Network
CME Group announced plans to launch physically-delivered Hard Red Spring Wheat futures and options in early Q2 2025, pending regulatory approvals. The new product will compete directly with the historic Minneapolis market.
“By adding Hard Red Spring Wheat futures and options, market participants will now be able to manage price risk across every major type of wheat on one exchange and all cleared in a single clearing house,” said John Ricci, Managing Director and Global Head of Agricultural Products at CME Group.
“In addition to providing important capital efficiencies and increased spread capabilities, our new physically-delivered Hard Red Spring Wheat futures contract will also have enhanced specifications and be delivered through shipping certificates, maximizing flexibility for commercial participants. We will also be launching options at the same time – offering clients another important tool to manage risk in the wheat market.”
The CME Group is home to the original Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soft red winter wheat futures contract, having merged with that company’s holding company in 2007. The Kansas City hard red winter wheat futures contract also is traded on the CME’s Globex platform after the Kansas City Board of Trade consolidated its trading floor with its Chicago counterpart in 2013 and ceased operations in 2015.
The new hard red spring wheat futures and options will compete with Minneapolis spring wheat futures currently traded electronically through Miax Futures Exchange LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Miami International Holdings, Inc., since 2020 that was known as the Minneapolis Grain Exchange from its 1881 founding until October of last year.
More trading of spring wheat would likely be supportive of the industry with added liquidity in the marketplace. But it remains to be seen if there are drawback to splitting the volume of trade between two exchanges.
CME’s expansion plan comes on the heels of record volume traded through the exchange in 2024. Wheat futures and options trading volumes increased 10% last year to an average daily volume of 229,000 contracts, the company said, with average daily volume across all CME Group agricultural products at a record high 1.7 million last year.
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CME Group
