This is a make-or-break year for the U.S. pulse industry, says one of Western Canada’s largest independent specialty crop exporters.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says American growers planted 42 percent more peas and 22 percent more lentils than they planted in 2003.
Those crops will be facing fierce competition from what some expect to be a record pulse harvest in Canada.
“This year will tell the tale with respect to the longer-term competitive nature of North Dakota with western Canadian production,” said Dave Walker, general manager of Walker Seeds Ltd.
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He anticipates a Canadian pea harvest of 3.2-3.5 million tonnes, shattering the previous record of 2.8 million tonnes set in 2000-01.
That many peas will drive prices down and depending on where the USDA sets its loan deficiency payment levels, American growers may switch back to more traditional crops.
“This year will determine whether there’s a future for that crop or not,” Walker said.
Pulses are a new crop for American farmers and this is the first year acreage has risen significantly since peas, lentils and small chickpeas were included under the U.S. farm bill in 2002. Its 2004 pea crop is estimated at 480,000 acres and lentils at 300,000 acres. Agriculture Canada expects Canadians will harvest 3.46 million acres of peas and 1.83 million acres of lentils.
But the growth south of the border generates unease among Canadian pulse growers who see loan deficiency payments as an unfair, market-distorting incentive for American farmers to increase their pea and lentil acreage.
“They’ve got a guaranteed floor (price) where we don’t have anything close to that,” said Alberta Pulse Growers president Don Deville.
Eric Batch, executive director of the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Association, said Canadian fears are misplaced.
Nearly half of the U.S. pulse crop is planted in North Dakota, where growers are responding to strong pea and lentil market prices, the rotational benefits of pulses and a growing processing sector, he said.
“They’re really starting to grasp the benefits of pulse crops.”
Pea acreage is up 75 percent in the state, while lentil plantings have risen 64 percent. Batch said it’s a stretch to attribute the increase in lentils to government aid programs because there hasn’t been a payment on the crop since the first week of the 2002 farm bill.
“It’s been over two years since any lentil producer in the United States has received any type of payment for his lentil crop,” he said.
Pea producers have received loan deficiency payments, but Batch said acres would have gone up anyway, with pea prices reaching $6 US per bushel this winter.
Walker said that may be true, but there’s no way acreage would have risen 42 percent without the security of floor prices. Canadian producers increased their pea plantings by only 10 percent this year.
With a huge North American pea and lentil crop on the horizon, American growers will have to broaden their marketing efforts beyond traditional food aid tenders, Walker said.
They may have to consider selling into feed markets, where he expects up to 65 percent of the Canadian pea crop will end up.
