CHICAGO — William Hilliard, CEO of Atalo Holdings, Inc., the largest hemp cooperative in the country, announced how his company expects to operate on Seed SEF, a new swap exchange facility operated by SEED CX and regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The announcement was made during an informational meeting held in Chicago by Seed SEF to describe the industrial hemp contracts.

Seed SEF is an institutional trading platform regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

A Swap Execution Facility (SEF) allows the trading of forwards, swaps and options for Eligible Contract Participants (ECPs).

Seed operates a non-intermediated model, which means that each participant connects directly to the exchange. Edward Woodford and Brian Liston founded Seed as graduate researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Seed SEF is backed by a consortium of farming groups and exchange liquidity providers.

According to board member John D’Agostino,”Seed SEF is addressing the next generation of vital agricultural commodities in a modern and efficient format that works for today’s market participants and exchanges. Firms like Seed SEF provide crucial innovation around managing under-served commodity risk.”

D’Agostino is well versed in launching new markets and brings experience from previously helping build the Dubai Mercantile Exchange.

Hilliard, is enthusiastic about the Seed SEF platform.

“We are a processor and manufacturer of industrial hemp-based products with a large grower group and a Hemp Research Campus located in Winchester, Kentucky,”  he said.  “Our mandate from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is to research the efficacy of industrial hemp, from the cultivar to the consumer, as an area of economic development and as another crop in the rotation for Kentucky farmers. The Seed SEF platform adds legitimacy to industrial hemp as a commodity. The ability to lock in price and mitigate risk through the use of derivative contracts traded on Seed CX may help establish market stability.  Seed SEF has been approved and is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and we’re happy to be involved in the early stages of the development of the platform.”

Seed SEF’s goal is to use derivative tools to cultivate financial security in emerging agricultural markets, with idiosyncratic production risks. Seed’s focus is on providing innovative means to secure operational stability for hedgers and new trading opportunities for speculators. Seed SEF operates in areas where there have been recent regulatory shifts, which present the potential to innovate in new or obscure markets.

Atalo Holdings, Inc., is an industry leader with transformative technologies for agricultural hemp and crop science. The Hemp Research Campus incubates seed improvement, agronomics, processing and commercialization techniques from its home in Winchester.