South African grain price risk is transferred through six listed futures contracts and the options written on them. The exchange fixes everything about those contracts except the price: how much grain, which grade, which months, where delivery happens and what a single tick is worth. Knowing those terms is the difference between hedging the tonnage you actually have and discovering a mismatch at expiry.
This page sets them out plainly. It is a reference, not advice — and contract terms are revised from time to time, so confirm anything you are about to trade on with the desk at info@derivative.co.za.
The six grain futures at a glance
| Contract | Size | Tick | Tick value | Daily limit | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White maize WMAZ | 100 t | 20c/t | R20 | R150/t | WM1 |
| Yellow maize YMAZ | 100 t | 20c/t | R20 | R150/t | YM1 |
| Maize, grade 2 WOPT / YOPT | 100 t | 20c/t | R20 | R150/t | WM2 / YM2+ |
| Bread milling wheat WEAT | 50 t | 20c/t | R10 | R240/t | Grade 1 par |
| Sunflower seed SUNS | 50 t | 20c/t | R10 | R270/t | Class FH |
| Soybeans SOYB | 100 t | 20c/t | R20 | R270/t | Class SB |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Three things hold across all six. They are quoted in rand per ton and move in minimum steps of 20 cents a ton — so a single tick is R20 on a 100-ton contract and R10 on a 50-ton one. They trade 09:00 to 12:00. And the five hedging months are March, May, July, September and December, with trading in an expiry closing at 12h00 on the sixth-last business day of that month. Other calendar months are listed as constant month contracts and, once introduced, trade exactly like the five.
Exact dates for every contract month are on the SAFEX trading calendar.
Daily limits are the exchange's circuit breaker: if a contract moves that far in a session, trading is restrained rather than allowed to gap. Each limit can be widened once — maize to R225 a ton, wheat to R360, sunflower seed and soybeans to R405.
Contract by contract
White maize
WMAZ · 100 tons · options WMAZ
- What one contract is
- 100 metric tons of white maize in bulk storage at an approved silo. A 500-ton crop is five contracts.
- Grade
- WM1 under the South African grading regulations.
- Accepted origins
- South Africa, Malawi, Mexico, the United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
- Marketing season
- 1 May to 30 April.
- Position limits
- For non-hedgers: 800 contracts in the spot month, 3 000 in any single month, 5 000 across all months. Hedgers are treated separately.
Yellow maize
YMAZ · 100 tons · options YMAZ
- What one contract is
- 100 metric tons of yellow maize in bulk storage at an approved silo.
- Grade
- YM1 under the South African grading regulations.
- Accepted origins
- South Africa, Malawi, South America, Ukraine, the United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
- Marketing season
- 1 May to 30 April.
- Position limits
- 1 800 contracts in the spot month for non-hedgers.
Maize, grade 2
WOPT / YOPT · 100 tons
- What one contract is
- 100 metric tons of white (WOPT) or yellow (YOPT) maize of grade WM2 or YM2 or better, from any origin.
- Why it exists
- It widens the deliverable pool to a lower grade and any origin, which matters when local supply is tight and imported maize is doing the work. Origin must be clearly identified on delivery.
- Position limits
- None.
Bread milling wheat
WEAT · 50 tons · options WEAT
- What one contract is
- 50 metric tons of bread milling wheat in bulk storage. Half the size of a maize contract, so a tick is worth R10.
- Grade
- Grade 1 is the par grade. Super grade delivers at a premium; grades 2 and 3 at a discount. The premium and discounts are set by the exchange and change from time to time.
- Accepted origins
- South Africa, Argentina, the United States (Hard Red Spring and Hard Red Winter), Canada (No. 3 or better Red Western Spring), Russia, Ukraine, Australia (Hard, Prime Hard, Prime White and Standard White) and Germany (Type A or B).
- Marketing season
- 1 October to 30 September.
- Position limits
- 1 000 contracts in the spot month for non-hedgers.
Sunflower seed
SUNS · 50 tons · options SUNS
- What one contract is
- 50 metric tons of high-oil-content sunflower seed in bulk storage.
- Grade
- Class FH under the South African grading regulations.
- Accepted origins
- South Africa, Argentina, Botswana, the European Union, Ukraine and Russia.
- Marketing season
- 1 March to the end of February.
Soybeans
SOYB · 100 tons · options SOYB
- What one contract is
- 100 metric tons of soybeans in bulk storage at an approved silo.
- Grade
- Class SB under the South African grading regulations.
- Accepted origins
- South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Malawi, the United States and Zambia.
- Marketing season
- 1 March to the end of February.
- Position limits
- For non-hedgers: 135 contracts in the spot month, 600 in any single month, 1 000 across all months. The tightest limits on the board — worth checking before sizing a large soybean position.
Options on the grain futures
Every one of the six futures has an option written on it. One option is exercisable into one futures contract of the same grain and delivery month, so the tonnage behind an option matches the future exactly.
| Style | American — exercisable at any point up to expiry, not only on the day. Puts and calls. |
|---|---|
| Strike intervals | R20.00 per ton |
| Quotation | Whole rand per contract |
| Contract months | March, May, July, September and December |
| Expiry | 12h00 on the fifth-last trading day of the month before the underlying future's expiry month |
| Exercise window | During market hours, up to 15 minutes before expiry |
| At expiry | In-the-money options are exercised automatically. At-the-money and out-of-the-money options expire worthless, leaving no futures position behind. |
| Valuation | Marked to market from at-the-money volatility quotes using the Black options pricing model, with a 3.5% volatility scanning range |
The expiry rule is the one that catches people. A grain option dies in the month before its future — a July option expires in June. If you are holding options as cover against a July position, the protection lapses while the future still has weeks to run.
How delivery actually works
These are physically settled contracts, and that is what anchors the futures price to the real market. Settlement happens by transfer of a silo receipt — a document from a registered storage operator confirming that a stated quantity and grade is sitting in store at a named location. Delivering the receipt delivers title to the grain.
The seller chooses the day. Any delivery day from the first business day of the expiry month to the fourth-last one will do, which means a short position holder controls the timing and a long position holder does not. Positions still short at the close on the last trading day must be settled by physical delivery.
Because a buyer cannot choose which silo they receive against, allocation is randomised by the exchange. For a hedger this is the practical point: the grain you are delivered may sit a long way from where you need it, and the cost of moving it is yours. Most positions are therefore closed out or rolled before delivery rather than carried into it — hedging the price without ever intending to move the physical.
Delivery points carry location differentials reflecting transport cost from each silo, and those differentials are a live part of a hedge's real economics. They change annually and vary by grain. The desk works these through position by position rather than publishing a table that goes stale — ask us for the current differential on the silos you actually use.
The rest of the desk
Commodities are our specialisation, and grains are the deepest part of it. They are not the whole of what a client can reach through one Applied Derivatives account.
Commodities
Beyond the grain board: gold, platinum, palladium, silver and copper; Brent, WTI, diesel and gas; and rand-quanto contracts giving exposure to global commodity prices without taking on the currency leg.
Currency derivatives
Ten listed rand pairs — dollar, euro, sterling, yen and others — cash settled in rand, with standard and any-day expiries. See the currency derivatives specifications.
Equity derivatives
Index futures on the Top 40, single stock futures and dividend futures. See the equity derivatives specifications.
Common questions
What is one SAFEX maize contract worth per tick?
R20. Maize trades in 100-ton contracts quoted in rand per ton, and the minimum move is 20 cents a ton — so one tick on one contract is R20. On wheat and sunflower seed, at 50 tons, the same 20-cent move is worth R10.
How many contracts do I need to hedge my crop?
Divide your tonnage by the contract size: 100 tons for maize and soybeans, 50 for wheat and sunflower seed. A 750-ton maize crop is seven and a half contracts, which is the practical problem with hedging — you can trade seven or eight, not seven and a half, and the remainder stays unhedged or over-hedged. Which way to round is a judgement about your own risk, and one worth talking through.
Can I trade currency or equity derivatives through the same account?
Yes. Applied Derivatives is an independent JSE member across all three markets — commodities, currencies and equity derivatives. Commodities are where the desk's depth is, but the account reaches the rest.