CME Group to Take Over EEX European Dairy Business by End of 2027

CME Group and the European Energy Exchange announced on September 8, 2026 that EEX will transition its European dairy business to CME Group, marking the U.S. exchange operator’s entry into the European dairy derivatives market. Under the agreement, EEX intends to phase out its dairy business and support the transfer of the suite of indices underpinning its existing futures contracts to CME Group before the end of 2027, according to the joint announcement.

The transaction covers the European butter and skimmed milk powder indices that anchor EEX’s dairy futures complex. CME Group plans to launch its own European dairy indices, futures and options, though the companies gave no launch date beyond describing the products as coming in the near future. The transaction is subject to pending closing conditions.

Terms and Continuity for Existing Positions

EEX dairy futures will remain available for their respective listed maturities during the transition period, and there will be no immediate changes to the setup of the pan-European butter and WECI indices. Both exchanges framed the arrangement as a managed handover rather than an abrupt migration, with EEX committing to support the index transition through the end-of-2027 target.

Tobias Paulun, Chief Executive Officer of EEX, positioned the divestment as part of a portfolio refocusing. “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,” Paulun said, adding that the move will allow EEX to concentrate on its wider energy market offering and its drive to support the energy transition. EEX, part of EEX Group, operates primarily as an energy exchange serving international power, natural gas, environmental, freight and agricultural markets, and the counterparty release published by EEX carried identical terms and timing.

CME Group’s Stated Rationale and Dairy Franchise Scale

Derek Sammann, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Commodities Markets at CME Group, described the European dairy market as one of the largest in the world and said adding European dairy futures and options would let the exchange build on record activity in its U.S. dairy franchise while offering clients access to a global market in one venue. Sammann said U.S. dairy volumes on CME Group have increased 73% over the past five years, a company-reported figure, and characterized the European expansion as the natural next step in helping producers and consumers access capital efficiencies and manage regional price risk.

The announcement arrives against record positioning in CME Group’s existing dairy complex. Open interest in the company’s dairy market climbed to a record 434,071 contracts on September 1, 2026, the company reported. Earlier in the year, CME Group had announced a dairy open interest record of 403,113 contracts set on February 27, 2026, alongside a record monthly average daily volume of 11,234 contracts in dairy futures and options for February; the prior average daily volume record of 9,514 contracts dated to September 2025. That March release also noted records in Class IV Milk futures and options, which traded a record monthly average daily volume of 1,443 contracts, and in Cash-Settled Cheese futures and options, which reached a record open interest of 90,378 contracts on February 26, 2026.

CME Group’s current U.S. dairy suite spans milk, butter, cheese and whey futures and options, with contracts listed for 24 consecutive months and traded on CME Globex or via block markets, according to the company’s dairy products page. The page also notes centralized clearing through CME Clearing and pack functionality on CME Globex that allows consecutive contract months to be executed in a single transaction.

The European Market the Indices Cover

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 figures cited in the announcement, which added that much of that market remains unhedged.

Once the index transition completes, the European butter and skimmed milk powder benchmarks that currently settle EEX dairy futures would underpin CME Group-listed contracts instead, consolidating the two regions’ dairy risk management on a single venue. The companies set no interim milestones beyond the end-of-2027 completion target and gave no financial terms for the transaction.