The new futures and options contracts will be cash-settled to the monthly average price for 40-lb. block cheddar cheese as reported by the USDA's National Dairy Products Sales Report (NDPSR) with each contract representing the equivalent of 20,000 pounds of block cheddar cheese and the tick size of $0.001 per pound.
Block cheese futures and options will be listed with and subject to the rules and regulation of CME.
Tim Andriesen, managing director of agricultural products at CME Group, said, "Our clients continue to look for tools to manage their price exposure in physical cheese markets, including food manufacturers and processors of cheese.
"The addition of block cheese futures and options to our existing suite of cash-settled dairy products provides clients with another solution for managing and hedging their risk."
CME Group enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data.
The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates a central counterparty clearing provider, CME Clearing. With a range of pre- and post-trade products and services underpinning the entire lifecycle of a trade, CME Group also offers optimization and reconciliation services through TriOptima, and trade processing services through Traiana.