Crude palm oil will be the ICDX’s second product after it was launched on March 31 with gold futures. The contract will be physically settled with 10 tonnes of oil.

It will pit the new exchange against its Indonesian rival, the Jakarta Futures Exchange, which also offers crude palm oil, and the market leader in Asia, Bursa Malaysia, in a battle to become Asia’s leading crude palm oil trading venue.

The Malaysian exchange had already hosted trading of some 590,000 crude palm oil contracts by early April this year.

Megain Widjaja, ICDX chief executive, said the new exchange would help the country fulfil its ambitions to be at the centre of price discovery for commodities produced in Indonesia.

Widjaja said: “Indonesia is the world’s largest crude palm oil producer. However, Indonesia is not the price reference for it. The time is right for Indonesia to play a significant role in establishing price reference for its local commodities in Asia, and worldwide.”

In 2008, Indonesia exported CPO worth $12.4bn, accounting for about 48% of the global demand in edible oil, the exchange said, adding: “Indonesia has the potential to become the world price reference of crude palm oil.”

ICDX also has ambitions to list new products such as coffee and cacao, and later tin, coal, natural gas and crude oil.

The exchange has yet to finalise a timetable for the new contracts, and said its priority at present was “to develop liquidity in tandem with the growing number of members”.