BSE Launches World’s Only Derivatives Contract for Trading in Almonds – Vocal for Local

The Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday, June 22, launched new almond contracts days with Sebi’s regulatory approval after options trading in gold and silver. These monthly futures contracts in almonds will take the reference rate of Navi Mumbai Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) and would be one metric tonne. This is the world’s only available derivatives contract for trading in almonds that comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘vocal for local’ call. For this reason, it is anticipating global interest.

The launch of an almond contract is expected to widen participation and add vibrancy to the commodity derivatives platform. The contract trading unit is 1,000 kg and the delivery units are 1,000 kg deliverable at Navi Mumbai. The maximum audit size is 20,000 kg. “The quality specifications should meet FSSAI standards with certified crack outs to be of 70 per cent to be based on the net edible yield, with allowable crack out of 68 per cent,” BSE said in its press release.

Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD & CEO of BSE, said, “For the first time, almonds will be priced on a forward-looking, market-driven basis based on the BSE Almond futures, offering stakeholders greater transparency and certainty. The launch of this unique and innovative contract marks momentous progress within the global agriculture commodity market.”

BSE had recently launched options trading in Gold mini and Silver contracts on its platform. While the NSE launched option on Gold mini on June 8, BSE offered options on Gold mini and Silver kilo contracts from June 1 this year after Sebi’s approval. Last October, BSE launched commodity derivatives trading in gold, silver, copper, Oman crude oil guar gum, guar seeds and turmeric. BSE is also the first Indian exchange to incorporate negative pricing in Brent crude oil contracts in its trading system.

BSE is reaching out to participants and spreading awareness of the benefits of these products. It said it has received a lot of queries from traders, importers and consumers although the size of the almond market is smaller than other commodities. BSE said it is confident that wide dissemination of almond prices on its platform will be used as a reference for physical market transactions.

The exchange is also expanding ties with various physical market participants for strengthening of warehouses and other support infrastructure, which is essential for grading, sorting and quality certification, etc.

Source: TNN

Image Courtesy: ToI