CME Group plans beef trim futures launch for July 2026

CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) announced plans to launch two financially-settled Beef Trim futures and options contracts, with trading expected to begin July 20, 2026, pending regulatory review.

The new contracts will cover 90% and 50% Lean Beef Trim, tracking products used in ground beef production. The lean percentages refer to the ratio of lean meat to fat in beef trim used to produce retail ground beef blends.

"These new contracts are designed for the last stage of bringing cattle to market, giving producers a complete set of risk management tools," said John Ricci, Managing Director and Global Head of Agricultural Products at CME Group. "By offering both 90% and 50% lean beef trim specifications, market participants can now precisely manage the input costs tied to popular retail blend ratios, bridging the gap between live cattle prices and the ground beef they ultimately sell."

Taylor Coughlin, Global Market Forecasting & Analytics Lead at FMG Global, said in the announcement that beef trim prices have been highly volatile and that market participants have had limited tools to hedge that exposure directly prior to this contract offering.

The contracts will be listed and subject to the rules of CME. According to the press release, CME Group recorded a record annual average daily volume of 1.9 million contracts for agricultural products in 2025, along with record annual average daily volume for Live Cattle futures and options at 111,718 contracts and Feeder Cattle futures and options at 31,545 contracts.

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