Afet to start soybean/corn trade in 2013

 This will extend the range of products traded on the commodity market from six - covering rice, rubber, tapioca and canned pineapple.
 Afet president Chatri Sahavejjabhand said that the soybean and corn prices will be based on the quotations at Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
 "We have received the endorsement to sign a contract with CME for the quotations," he said.
 "Investors can settle for soybean and corn in cash, which should add attraction and flexibility to the trading, comparable to the trading of oil and gold futures in the Thailand Futures Exchange," he said.
 Soybean is the biggest agricultural import item, with the value of Bt34.3 billion last year. Though it has been used widely in the edible vegetable oil production and feed mill industry, Thailand's value of domestically-grown soybean is only Bt2.3 billion.
 Corn, used heavily in the feed mill industry, has been in higher demand as some output has been turned to ethanol. The value of corn harvested domestically was tuned at Bt35.6 billion last year, but Thailand also needed to import corn at the value of Bt750 million.
 "The new futures offer business operators an opportunity for hedging against price volatility, as CME's quotations have been used as reference prices," Chatri said.