NZX Dairy Futures describes the achievement of 5000 lots traded as a "significant milestone" in the growth of the global dairy risk management tool.
NZX launched its dairy futures market with whole milk powder futures in October last year, followed by skim milk powder and anhydrous milk fat futures early this year.
Volume last month increased 150% over August and open interest increased 93% over the same period.
"There is no doubt that NZX dairy futures are now very tradeable, with a growth curve that indicates they will, in time, be as liquid as other global benchmark commodity contracts," NZX derivatives manager Kathryn Jaggard said.
The contracts were developed in response to dairy industry demand for a liquid, and globally relevant, risk mitigation tool to manage price volatility. Now that tool was available, many firms were using it to hedge risk, she said.
It took close to 11 months to reach 2500 trades and only six weeks for that total to hit 5000 trades. That was a "remarkable demonstration of global momentum", NZX chief executive Mark Weldon said.
The next stage in the market's development is the first of a suite of dairy options contracts - WMP Options - going live on November 30.
Options contracts completed the dairy derivatives product set, giving greater flexibility in hedging and trading strategies.
In particular, they allowed participants to limit down-side price risk without capping the upside, Ms Jaggard said.