Wheat prices in the international market showed an even steeper upward curve, with the most actively traded futures contract for delivery in May on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soaring a total of 12.9 percent to 1115.4 US cents per bushel. In addition to hard wheat futures contracts, ZCE is also trading strong gluten wheat futures contracts.

Other than helping expand the market scope, the introduction of the new contract would not influence wheat price movements as the demand-supply relation is unchanged.

Liu Xinghua, a farm produce analyst at Great Wall Futures Co in Shanghai, said the adjusted contract would attract many more spot traders into the futures market. "The trading of the new contract is expected to be more active than that of the current contract," said Liu.

The total production of wheat in China reached 106 million tons in 2007, up 1.4 percent from the year before, while the total consumption dropped to 100.5 million tons by 0.4 percent. The world production of wheat totaled 603.5 million tons, up 1.7 percent year-on-year, while the aggregate world consumption reached 603 million tons last year.

(China Daily March 4, 2008)