ZHENGZHOU, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The world's first apple futures contracts started trading on Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange in central China's Henan Province Friday morning.

China is the world largest apple grower and consumer, and its apple output and farms have been increasing over the past decade. In 2016, China had 2 million hectares of apple trees with an output of 43.88 million tonnes, accounting for 57 percent of global supply.

Apple growing is key to China's poverty alleviation campaign, as many of China's impoverished areas rely on apples as a major income source. Among all 122 key apple growing cities and counties listed by the Ministry of Agriculture, 33 are national-level impoverished counties.

Currently, apple prices are solely determined by the market, and farmers and enterprises are at the mercy of market price fluctuations.

The launch of the futures is expected to make prices more transparent and help growers hedge against price risks.