The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Agricultural Advisory Committee held a meeting on 11 April featuring discussions on agricultural lending and a presentation on options growth in agricultural markets by Derek Sammann, CME Group's global head of commodities, options and international markets.
During the meeting, CFTC Commissioner Goldsmith Romero asked how much participation there was from small and family farmers in derivatives markets. Scott Donnelly, Farm Credit Administration, stated he believes a very small percentage of farmers due to a lack of expertise.
CFTC Chairman Russ Behnam, the advisory committee's sponsor, previewed that he anticipates the committee convening another meeting in the fourth quarter. He concluded the meeting by thanking representatives from some US prudential regulators for participating. He pointed to issues raised in the meeting about the intersection between rules in the prudential space and their impact on CFTC-regulated markets and said the CFTC would continue to engage with prudential regulators so that its constituency could have access to these markets to manage risk.
Options growth in agricultural markets
Sammann began his presentation emphasizing that CME Group exists to help customers efficiently manage risk, and options are a great example of market dynamics that can impact end-users.
He said that options in agricultural markets had experienced multi-year growth as market participants added these instruments to their risk management toolkit, noting that 2023 was a record year for agricultural options at CME Group. In addition, agricultural market participants are increasing their use of short-dated options to manage discrete risk events, he said.
Sammann concluded his presentation highlighting the educational resources CME Group has available for market participants, introducing brokers, and others.
The meeting in Overland Park, Kansas preceded AgCon2024, the third Agricultural Commodity Futures Conference hosted by the CFTC and the Center for Risk Management Education and Research at Kansas State University.
AAC links
