March 28, 2012

China's Zhengzhou plans H1 rapeseed, meal futures

As early as the first half of 2012, the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange of China is seeking to launch rapeseed and rapeseed meal futures, said an exchange official.

"We are planning to have rapeseed and rapeseed meal futures this year, maybe in the first half of the year, depending on approvals," Wei Huangyang, an exchange official told Reuters on the sidelines of an oilseed conference in Beijing.

The exchange, based in northern Henan province, is one of three trading commodities in China.

It started rapeseed oil futures in 2007, but trading has been lacklustre because crushers, which buy seeds locally, can not hedge against their meal product.

China has futures trading of soy, soyoil, soymeal as well as palmoil at the Dalian Commodity Exchange. The Zhengzhou exchange trades other farm products, including white sugar and cotton.

China's domestic rapeseed is of lower quality than rapeseed, which is a variety of the oilseed.

China's rapeseed imports this year are seen to pick up to between 1.5 million and two million tonnes, up from 1.3 million tonnes last year, following rapid expansion of domestic crushing capacity, according to estimates by traders.