Some processors and growers are choking on the red lentils they say are being crammed down their throats.
They object to the concerted effort by the pulse industry to convince growers to plant more reds, claiming the growth will come at the expense of the well-established green lentil sector.
Maurice Coupal, manager of Sedley Seeds Ltd., in Sedley, Sask., has spoken to a handful of producers who plan to give up greens in favour of reds in 2005.
“It shocks me that the pulse board has gone overboard in pushing red lentils,” he said.
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Saskatchewan Pulse Growers executive director Garth Patterson is equally shocked by Coupal’s comments.
“I guess I’m a bit surprised that some processors would take such a short-term view.”
He believes there is room to double the province’s pulse acreage if the demand is there and that is certainly the case for red lentils. But the growth doesn’t have to come at the expense of other pulses.
“We’re not talking shift, we’re talking expansion. It’s unfortunate some would view that as a threat to their green lentil business,” said Patterson.
It is undeniable that there has been an industry-wide push for reds. Recent articles published in SPG’s PulsePoint magazine have given a “green light for red lentils” and have highlighted the marketing opportunity for the crop in places like Egypt.
And the association isn’t the only group promoting expansion of the crop.
Over the winter, Saskcan Pulse, the country’s largest red lentil splitter, along with a heavy dose of presenters at various conferences, have said that while 80 percent of Canadian lentil production is in greens, 80 percent of the world trade is in reds.
Breeders at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre say they are placing more emphasis on the red lentil program and are excited about two soon-to-be-released Clearfield varieties.
All the hype surrounding reds baffles Coupal, who has been in the lentil business since Lairds took the market by storm in the early 1980s.
He attempted growing reds on a few occasions but was frustrated by the lack of marketing opportunities for the pulse. In years when Turkey produces an average crop, demand seems to dry up.
“We had one year where we grew reds and we couldn’t sell them for four years,” said Coupal.
There is often no market for off-grade or damaged product and there are significant costs getting good quality crop to market position.
Coupal said red lentils are sold to distant Muslim countries, which means hefty ocean freight costs compared to the greens markets in Mexico and Central America.
But what worries him more are red lentil volunteers, which can lead to serious financial losses if they emerge in a future crop of green lentils.
“We’ve had farmers dump nice lentils into the feed mill to get ground up because they had three or four percent red lentils in them. And they hadn’t grown red lentils for five years.”
Gerald Donkersgoed, manager of Finora Canada, shares Coupal’s concerns about the looming red tide.
“We encourage the expansion of red lentil production, that’s all well and good. But we encourage growers to maintain the green lentil base as well because we do have good markets and they have been well established.”
If growers have a track record of being able to produce reasonably good volumes of quality green lentils, they should stick with it.
“We are the pre-eminent exporter of green lentils to the world, so we need to maintain that production base of green lentils,” said Donkersgoed.
Some growers are also leery about the advice they’ve been getting. In an interview at Pulse Days, Indian Head, Sask., farmer Terry Rein said processors seem to be interested only in No. 2 or better red lentils, which can be hard to attain.
“If you’ve got those you’ve got a good market. If you don’t, then you struggle.”
Rein is also concerned that planting too many reds will have a price-damping effect on the commodity.
Patterson said it is up to each individual grower to read the market signals but he believes oversupply will not be a problem as long as growers avoid the “wild expansion” that chickpeas saw a few years ago. And the demand economics are encouraging.
“I’m very bullish on opportunities for reds after being in Egypt and Dubai recently.”
Patterson realizes volunteer plants may be an issue but that has always been the case and experienced growers can easily manage that problem by using separate rotations for the two types of lentil.
