The introduction of these options contracts follows the successful launch of financially settled Black Sea Wheat and Black Sea Corn futures contracts, which have traded more than 40,000 contracts since launch with a combined open interest of over 20,000 contracts.

“We’re pleased with the growth of our financially settled Black Sea Wheat and Black Sea Corn futures contracts, which have been trading well since their launch on Dec. 11, 2017,” said Jeffry Kuijpers, executive director, Agricultural Commodities, CME Group. “With the addition of these grain options contracts, our customers will now have enhanced hedging capabilities and greater flexibility to mitigate Black Sea grain price risk throughout the supply chain.”

These new options contracts will be available for trading on CME Globex and CME ClearPort, and will be listed with and subject to the rules and regulation of CBOT. They complement CME Group’s existing suite of global wheat and corn benchmarks, including Black Sea FOB Wheat, Black Sea FOB Corn, Australian FOB Wheat, Soft Red Winter Wheat, Hard Red Winter Wheat and No. 2 Yellow Corn contracts.