CHICAGO and LEIPZIG, Germany, Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, and the European Energy Exchange, the world's leading exchange for power and European energy, today announced an agreement for EEX to transition its European dairy business to CME Group, already home to the dairy risk management industry in the U.S.

Under the terms of the agreement, EEX intends to phase out its dairy business and support the transition of its suite of indices underpinning existing futures contracts to CME Group before the end of 2027. The transaction, which includes the European butter and skimmed milk powder indices, will mark CME Group's entry into the European dairy market, with plans to launch its own European dairy indices, futures and options in the near future.

"The European dairy market is one of largest in the world, and the addition of European dairy futures and options will allow CME Group to build on record activity in our U.S. dairy franchise and offer clients access to a truly global market in one venue," said Derek Sammann, Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Commodities Markets, CME Group. "As the global population grows, dairy is becoming an increasingly important protein source for diets around the world. With U.S. dairy volumes increasing 73% over the past five years, expanding into Europe is the natural next step in helping producers and consumers access capital efficiencies and manage regional price risk."

"We are proud of the leading European market for dairy derivatives that we built over the years together with our customers. With our renewed focus on core markets and related growth areas, we are delighted to have CME Group as our successor, bringing additional growth opportunities for the dairy community. We are committed to supporting CME Group and market participants with a smooth transition," said Tobias Paulun, Chief Executive Officer of EEX. "This will allow us to focus on our wider energy market offering and our drive to support the energy transition."

Dairy futures trading at EEX will remain available for the respective listed maturities, and there won't be any immediate changes to the setup of the pan-European butter and WECI indices.

The European Union accounts for roughly 20% of cow's milk production and more than 30% of nonfat dry milk exports globally, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Service. Much of that market remains unhedged.

Open interest in CME Group's dairy market climbed to a record 434,071 contracts on September 1, 2026.

The transaction is subject to pending closing conditions. For more information on CME Group dairy markets, please visit here.

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, energy, agricultural products and metals. 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 one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC ("S&P DJI"). "S&P®", "S&P 500®", "SPY®", "SPX®", US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE CME Group