Bean growers on both sides of the border are confounding traders with their intention to seed more pintos.
A report released last week by the United States Department of Agriculture shows that despite slumping prices and large expected carryover in most of the popular classes of beans, U.S. growers plan to expand acreage by three percent to 1.7 million acres.
Much of the growth is forecast in North Dakota, the top pinto growing state. Producers there are expected to seed 720,000 acres of beans, up 16 percent from the 620,000 acres grown in 2005.
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“That is puzzling to me,” said Ivan Sabourin, president of Roy Legumex Inc., one of Canada’s largest processors and exporters of beans.
Pinto prices in April were 48 percent lower than at the same time last year. It was the biggest decrease for any class of bean, which is why Sabourin was surprised by the rise in North Dakota’s acreage.
“I don’t know how to explain that because there is an expected carryout of pintos,” he said.
Blair Roth, manager of Agricore United’s bean program, isn’t putting much faith in the USDA report.
“I would say at this point, from people I talk to in North Dakota, it is still somewhat unsure.”
He has conflicting reports from his sources in the state and noted that this year, perhaps more than any other, growers will make last minute changes to their seeding plans.
Gary Paur, Northarvest Bean Growers Association president, a marketing group representing growers in North Dakota and Minnesota, said the USDA bean estimate has historically been accurate.
In the past 40 years it has never been more than three percent off target and in many of those years it was bang on.
But he noted the report includes estimates for garbanzo beans or chickpeas, a crop that could account for some of the three percent nation-wide increase due to its expected popularity in 2006.
It is a stretch, however, to assume that chickpeas will account for much of the 100,000 acre increase in North Dakota.
Paur, who farms near Gilby, N.D., thinks the increase in that state will be in pintos, a crop that has been rapidly expanding into non-traditional regions of the state.
With all the wet weather in recent years, acreage has shifted out of the eastern portion of the state and into the central region where growers are getting yields of 2,000-3,000 pounds per acre on ground that would have delivered 200Ð300 lb. 15 years ago.
Sabourin said U.S. growers are not alone in their love of the pinto. He estimated that Manitoba’s plantings will be up 10,000 – 20,000 acres while navy bean acreage will fall by a similar amount.
“My buyers are telling me that pintos are winning the battle for acres,” said Sabourin.
Navies are traditionally the dominant class in Manitoba but pintos are catching up. This year he expects 70,000 acres of navies and 60,000 of pintos.
Despite a worrisome North American carryover of pintos, growers prefer the crop over navies because it is cheaper to grow, has delivered impressive yields and isn’t subject to the same scrutiny from European canners.
“Their quality parameters are very tight and growers get punished for lower quality beans whereas pintos is a lot more forgiving,” said Sabourin.
The spread between No. 1 and No. 2 pintos can be as low as one cent per lb. The difference is far more pronounced for navy beans, he said.
Another factor playing into the plan to seed more pintos in Manitoba is the continued decline in the duty for beans headed to Mexico. The out-of-quota duty falls to 23.5 percent this year, down from 35.2 percent in 2005.
Sabourin said the Mexicans are big buyers of pintos and blacks and may be willing to incur the duty to get the product they want when they want it.
Manitoba growers also plan to seed 20,000 acres of black beans, a possible record for that crop. Producers are chasing strong market prices for the class and anticipated demand from Mexico.
The USDA report said blacks are the only major class of bean that saw a price increase this crop year, with April’s values 10 percent higher than at the same time in 2005.
That is why Sabourin was shocked to see a four percent decline in Michigan’s bean acreage in the USDA report.
“We’re surprised by that because they do grow a lot of black beans and with the strong prices we expected Michigan to increase acres,” he said.
