Trading at the industry-driven Coffee Futures Exchange India Limited (COFEI), which has an authorised capital of Rs two crore, would begin on Friday, about 13 months after the idea was first mooted at a brainstorming session of the Coffee Board, COFEI chairman Ashwin J Shah said.

He said 2,000 lots (of 600 kg), worth Rs 10 crore, were expected to be traded per day in the exchange.

Shah, a leading exporter of coffee, tea and spices, said COFEI was making efforts to get the union commerce minister, Ramakrishna Hegde, to formally inaugurate the COFEI, tentatively fixed on June 28.

COFEI would have two floor brokers initially and was looking out for more, he said.

The stage had been set for the launch of COFEI on May 22 last itself when it joined hands with the bgse to use its infrastructural facilities bysigning a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), he noted.

The agreement with the bgse is for two years. COFEI has registered 65 trading members, six trading-cum-clearing members and 220 ordinary members. Shah said a few interaction-cum-mock trading sessions were conducted earlier this month to educate members about the functioning of COFEI and the exchange mechanism.

Stressing that COFEI was for the industry and trade, and not for a particular segment, its chairman said, "it's a win-win situation (for COFEI and BGSE)."

Expressing happiness about the establishment of COFEI, BGSE president UB Maiya said it was for the first time that a stock exchange and a commodity futures exchange have come together to work for common benefit.

Officials of the exchanges noted that COFEI would be able to draw on BGSE's expertise in trading and associated process and benefit from not having to spend extensively in establishing the basic structure.

BGSE would be able to use its existing facilities more efficiently andcost effectively, they pointed out.

According to Shah, under the MoU, COFEI would pay a fee to bgse per lot (of 600 kgs) every month, with a minimum amount being fixed.

COFEI's business manager PM Narayan Bhat said a contract for development of software for price capture, daily trading and clearing system had been awarded to "innovative systems" of Kochi, which had also developed a similar system for the international pepper exchange at Kochi.

It has also been decided to have the transactions cleared by the trading-cum-clearing members, pending appointment of bankers as institutional clearing members.