The Dalian Commodity Exchange in northeast China's Liaoning Province began futures trading of imported soybeans at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

China Securities Regulatory Commission, the watchdog for the securities and futures industries, allows all imported soybeans, including genetically-modified (GM) soybeans from the United States, to be traded on the Chinese futures market along with China's homegrown soybeans.

Before Wednesday, only domestically produced, non-GM soybeans could be traded at the 10-year-old Dalian Commodity Exchange, a marketplace for soybean, corn and soybean meal futures.

The increase of trading items is widely heralded as a boon for the industry because Chinese food oil producers depend on imports for two-thirds of their production demand. Futures trading of imported soybeans will help them to avoid market risks.

Yang Maijun, director of the futures department with China Securities Regulatory Commission, said soybean futures trading helps to adjust China's planting structure and improve its grain market system. Yang also acknowledged that it plays an important role in reducing market risks for soybean growers, processors and distributors from home and abroad.

The Dalian Exchange is expected to handle 200 million tons of soybeans futures per year.

Soybean futures transactions at the exchange amounted to 3 trillion yuan (361.45 billion US dollars) last year, according to statistics from Dalian Commodity Exchange.

China has three futures exchanges -- the Dalian Commodity Exchange, the Shanghai Futures Exchange and the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange -- trading copper, aluminum, rubber, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal and cotton.

China has launched three new futures products this year, with cotton futures in Zhengzhou Exchange in June, fuel oil futures in Shanghai Exchange in August, and corn futures in Dalian Exchange in September.