Winnipeg, Jan. 6 – After two years of abnormally large price spreads between green and yellow peas in Western Canada, the relationship between the two has returned to more normal levels.
The yellow pea market has risen a little in recent weeks, but the green market “is not that interesting,” said David Newman, of Commodius Trading in Vancouver.
He said overseas buyers have met their immediate needs for green peas and many are not that interested in taking delivery currently.
For yellows, there has been “a little splash of demand,” from people needing to fill vessels.
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“Yellow peas have been so boring for so long, that a 50 cent move is news,” said Newman.
He said the ‘news’ wasn’t really that surprising as yellow pea supplies are not that large and occasionally prices will need to rise to encourage farmer sales to fill vessels.
With yellow peas facing steady demand and green peas finally at a place after two years where supplies are outpacing demand, Newman said prices were returning to more historically normal spreads.
“In eight out of 10 years, green peas will be $1.50 to $2.00 above yellows, because it’s harder to get the quality and the yields are a bit less,” said Newman.
He said the spread has been as wide as $6 over the past two years, but has now narrowed to more normal levels.
Green pea bids are now topping out at about $9.25 per bushel, which is well off the highs of the past year of $13.00, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire data. Top end yellow pea bids, meanwhile, are at their yearly highs of $8 per bushel.
