March 30, 2007

South Korea to launch lean hog futures this year
 

South Korea mulls to Asia's first lean hog futures market in the second half of this year, to be listed on the Korea Exchange, the country's financial regulator said on Thursday (March 29).

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FCC) had first delayed its approval to list it in 2005 due to lack of trading system as well as its concerns on farmers' giving it a brush-off.

The launching will after a trading system on the Korea Exchange is established in August, said an FCC official.

As the country's first agriculture derivatives product, the official said the lean hog futures will give farmers a protection against price volatility.

Annual production value of hog in the country is about 3.8 trillion won ($4.04 billion) -- over 30 percent of the value of total livestock production in the country, according to industry data.

Only a few countries trade hog-related futures such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the US has lean hog and pork belly futures, while Germany, Hungary and Netherland trade live hogs.