AMSTERDAM and LONDON,
July 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- CME
Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives
marketplace, and SGS, the world's leading inspection, verification,
testing and certification company, today announced the opening of a
new, state-of-the-art cocoa grading facility in Amsterdam.
Physically delivered, euro-denominated Cocoa futures were
launched on CME Europe in March this year. Since launch it has
traded more than 6,000 contracts and has over 1,000 contracts in
open interest. This was complemented in June
2015 by the introduction of Cocoa options. Amsterdam was selected as one of three
delivery ports for CME Group's new Cocoa futures contracts.
Futures markets in cocoa are essential to manage risks in the
complex supply chain involved in chocolate and related
manufacturing across Europe. For a
futures contract to be an effective hedge for physical cocoa, the
process of sampling and grading cocoa held in storage must be
rigorous.
"Opening a grading facility in Amsterdam puts this important function within
close proximity of the key cocoa storage facilities, therefore
improving the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the futures
sampling and grading process," said Cees
Vermaas, CEO of CME Europe. "Our partnership with SGS
helps to further ensure the integrity of the process, resulting in
fair values for our clients and a more effective hedging tool for
the cocoa market."
"Delivering high quality services and fast turnaround times, our
new grading facility puts SGS and CME Europe at the forefront of
the European cocoa market," said Albert
Wesenhagen, Agricultural Business Development and Branch
Manager, SGS. "Our highly trained personnel will conduct intake
supervision, as well as all testing and grading in accordance with
CME Europe criteria and procedures and FCC rules."
For more details on CME Group's Cocoa contracts, please visit
http://www.cmegroup.com/cocoa.
About CME Group
As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace,
CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage
risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global
benchmark products across all major asset classes, including
futures and options based on interest rates, equity
indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural
commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings
buyers and sellers together through its CME Globe® electronic
trading platform, its trading facilities in New York and Chicago, and through its London-based CME Europe derivatives
exchange. CME Group also operates one of the world's leading
central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing and
CME Clearing Europe, which offer clearing and settlement services
across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and
over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and
services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially
mitigate counterparty credit risk.
CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME,
Globe and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago
Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board
of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of
Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New
York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of
New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of
Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. Further information about CME
Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at
www.cmegroup.com.
About SGS
SGS is the world's leading inspection,
verification, testing and certification company and is recognized
as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than
80,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 1,650 offices and
laboratories around the world. We help ensure the integrity
of the food chain by providing services that cover all aspects of
the agricultural industry, helping customers manage crops, enhance
seed development, conduct soil testing and harvesting, move product
through the global supply chain and manage trade inspection at
export and import. Serving all of the major players in the
agricultural sector, our services reduce risk, ensure quality and
improve productivity.
CME-G
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SOURCE CME Group