Exchange Hopes to Reel In Business

It may be a shell game to some, but the Minneapolis Grain Exchange is taking shrimp trading seriously.

The exchange said it will start trading in shrimp futures and options contracts July 12 after the new market was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The contract will be the world’s only futures and options contract for seafood, the exchange said.

“Shrimp is a multibillion-dollar industry in which hundreds of companies produce, distribute, process and sell the product,” exchange President James Lindau said.

He said the price volatility of shrimp will boost trading in the futures contract, which is an agreement to buy or sell a fixed amount of a commodity in the future at a set price.