MGE PLANNING APRIL 6 START UP OF HFCS CONTRACT

  The Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGE)
  will start trading futures contracts in high fructose corn
  syrup on April 6 if the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
  (CFTC) approves the contract as expected next week.
      Pat Henderson, spokesperson for the MGE, said the exchange
  expects contract approval at CFTC's Tuesday meeting. It has
  been under review since the exchange submitted the proposal in
  December, 1985.
      The proposed contract is based on 48,000 pound lots of
  55-pct high fructose corn syrup, the equivalent of one tank
  truck of the sweetening agent derived from corn in the wet
  milling process. The syrup, commonly called HFCS-55, is most
  commonly used as a sweetener in soft drinks and other
  beverages.
      Delivery would be by shipping certificate from production
  facilities designated by the exchange. The contract, designated
  by the symbol "HF," would trade from 0900 to 1315 CST. Months
  traded would correspond with the Chicago corn futures months of
  March, May, July, September and December.
      Contract price will be quoted per hundred weight, with a
  minimum price fluctuation of one cent and maximum fluctuation
  of one dlr per CWT.
      "We hope the producers and users of fructose will be
  actively involved, those producers being the large processors,
  the corn wet millers, and the users being the beverage
  bottlers," Henderson said. "But there are potentials for all
  types of people to use it. There is quite a list of industries
  that utilize fructose."
  

