Mr Shrikant Subbarayan, Head: Products, NCDEX added, “India is the largest producer, importer and exporter of cashew in the world today and it is only appropriate that India pioneers the concept of futures trading in cashew. The industry has long felt the need for such a product to hedge their price risk. NCDEX has understood the market and the need for such a product and has hence included cashew in its trading basket. We would be coming out with more products considering the interest shown by market players and the enthusiasm for trading on our platform”.
On the occasion of the launch, Ms Meera Manojkumar, Product Manager for cashew, NCDEX, said, “Cashew is a very important commodity due to its high international demand & foreign exchange earning capacity. Cashew prices have been historically very volatile in India, witnessing numerous highs & lows. The introduction of futures trading will bring some stability to it and help in fair price discovery of the product. Players will now be better placed to hedge their positions. This will also benefit all the participants along the value chain, right from the cultivators to processors and exporters”.
The product basis for the contract is set as W 320 Ex- warehouse Kollam, exclusive of all taxes. The unit of trading & the delivery unit, both are 50 cartons. The price quote would be on net basis and the net weight of each carton would be 22.68 kg. The main delivery centre is Kollam with Mangalore as an additional centre. The initial contracts available for trading will be for expiry dates in May 2005 and July 2005. The position limit is set at 40000 cartons for a member & 10000 for a client.
NCDEX is a multi-commodity exchange which has eight institutional shareholders: CRISIL, ICICI Bank, IFFCO, LIC, NABARD, NSE, Canara Bank and PNB. NCDEX commenced trading on December 15, 2003 and offers trading facilities through around 550 members spread across over 440 centres in the country. All transactions and processes are automated and the Exchange is perceived as a technology driven company and business is conducted through over 6000 terminals all across the country. The Exchange does business of about Rs 1600-1800 cr a day of which around 85% is accounted for by agricultural commodities.
