ZHENGZHOU, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE) in central China's Henan Province has planned to launch the trading of Chinese jujube futures from April 30.

A farmer prepares harvested red dates for air-drying in a village in Zaoqiang County, North China's Hebei Province, Sept. 22, 2018. (Photo: Xinhua)

It will be the world's first futures trading platform for dried jujube. Contracts will start trading on ZCE at the benchmark price of 8,600 yuan ($1,278) per tonne.

According to ZCE, the first batch of contracts are for December delivery, as well for January, March and May of 2020 deliveries. The trading will be open only for domestic buyers.

ZCE has set a fluctuation limit of 10 percent of the benchmark price on the first trading day. It has designated 14 enterprises to provide warehouses for the contract deliveries.

Jujube trees are indigenous to China with 98 percent of the world's jujube plantations in China. The plant is a source of income for more than 20 million Chinese farmers.

The demand for the nutritious agricultural product has been on the rise in China. Over 5.6 million tonnes of jujubes were sold in the China market in 2017, up from 3.9 million tonnes in 2005, according to data from ZCE.