NZX launched its dairy futures market at 8am Friday with the hope that it would make one trade on day one... but the first day didn’t attract any business. The exchange has been working on the futures market for two years. Futures contracts are tools for managing price and cost risks, which effectively enable companies to lock in a price. Whole milk powder futures were the first product to be launched by the NZX, with potential users including processors, manufacturers, dairy trading firms and farmers. Contracts ranged from one to 18 months, with buyers and sellers trading through a clearing house. For every buyer there must a seller to match and vice versa."One person has to think something's going up and the other person has to think something's going down." The futures contracts would be settled in cash, rather than products, using Fonterra's online auction globalDairyTrade to determine price.
Dairy Globe |