The New Zealand stock exchange operator has taken another step towards becoming a global player in the dairy industry by qualifying as an authorised dairy trader in the United States.
The NZX has been registered as a Foreign Board of Trade by the American regulatory agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The move means customers in the US can take part in trading on the stock operator's Dairy Derivatives platform, which previously they had not been able to do.
The NZX offers trading in Whole milk powder, skim milk powder and anhydrous milk fat futures.
Last year, the stock operator extended its Dairy Derivative trading hours so that it would operlap with trading days in the US and Europe.
NZX head of derivatives Kathryn Jaggard said there had been a lot of demand for the registration.
"There are a number of customers in the US who are looking to access the NZX dairy derivitives market to be able to manage their price risk in globally-traded commodities. A lot of that goes back the fact that for the global diary trade price which we use to settle our futures contracts has become more and more of a benchmark in globally-traded diary commodities. More and more people are using that price...and there are a number of firms in the US who have essentially been waiting for this CFCT authorisation to come through so that they can directly access our market. What that means for us is more participants and more volume in the market."
