Futures contracts are extensively used by commercial market participants to hedge commodities against the risk of adverse price fluctuations. But although farmers have faced increased volatility in commodity prices in recent years, only very few of them actively use hedging as a risk management...

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Iron Wall as well as the emergence of Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Romania as major actors on international grain markets since 2000 had increased the hope for a more stable international grain market. However, various short-run trade policy...