the Food Corporation of India (fci) may soon trade its surplus wheat and rice in the domestic commodity exchanges through futures transactions, say fci sources. Even as Asia's largest food-procurement agency toys with the idea, the trader community, brokers and exchanges are apprehensive.

Making sense of futures A futures contract is an agreement made between parties to buy or sell a commodity at a future price decided in advance, based on available demand/supply information. Such a contract would serve two functions for fci