The focus of this article is an employment of option contracts by economic agents when hedging a price risk in international trade of agriculture and food commodities. Despite a serious downturn in the world economy accompanied with major logistics and global value chains disruptions caused by Coronavirus disease in 2020, international agri-food trade demonstrates a sustainable growth supported by a constantly waxing demand due to continuous increase in population and improvement in living standards as well as a higher supply due to modern technological progress. It therefore implies that a comprehensive price risk management system should be introduced to avoid or minimize market participants’ exposure to potentially adverse future events. The article is devoted to the study of the key advantages of using options as an integrated element within such a system. Comparative analysis of future and option contracts is conducted to better understand their respective application depending on a risk profile of an event. The economic nature of options is presented from the perspective of a concept of price insurance that provides for an existence of a certain risk premium determined by market forces which is paid by economic agents to obtain such a price guarantee. Fundamental characteristics of an option contract as a financial derivative, its types and features, reason of usage according to the goals that economic agents, including e.g., powerful multinational enterprises (MNE), try to achieve depending on their specific market position are described. The article explains situations of economic agents, both producers and processors of agricultural commodities on the one hand (acting as hedgers) and speculators one the other hand (acting as such), being naturally long or naturally short as well as respective tactics based on options they adhere to with the aim of protecting their positions against unfavorable moves in market prices. Thus, the fact it refers to real scenarios of using options as price risk hedging tools which international traders can utilize when moving agricultural and food commodities globally, reinforces opinion that this article is of a significant practical importance.
