By Tom Webb

St. Paul Pioneer Press

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Grain Exchange said Wednesday it tallied more than 2 million transactions during its just-concluded fiscal year, the most in its 133-year history.

The venerable exchange is best known for trading spring wheat, and in 2008 it switched almost exclusively to computerized trading.

That spelled the end for its ornate trading floor, where generations of grain traders had shouted and gestured in an open-outcry system.

But the Minneapolis exchange continues in business, and its spring wheat contracts continue to dominate. Futures contracts for hard red spring wheat accounted for an overwhelming share of its trading — more than 98 percent — followed by options for spring wheat.

Two newer trading products, apple juice concentrate futures and options, drew comparatively light interest, the exchange said.

“Trading and clearing more contracts this fiscal year than ever before in MGEX’s long and distinguished history is a tremendous milestone for both MGEX and for our membership,” exchange CEO Mark Bagan said in a statement.

In tallying trades, the exchange counts each side of a transaction, so one seller and one buyer would count as two.