The lentil industry thinks it has resolved the post-harvest confusion surrounding the quality of this year’s crop.
“We’ve got a strong handle right now on where these various grade definitions are. I am quite confident going forward now,” said Randy Dennis, chief grain inspector of the Canadian Grain Commission.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers chair Murray Purcell agreed.
“By and large it has resolved itself,” he said.
Growers and traders were upset earlier this marketing campaign about the blurring of the line between a No. 2 and Extra No. 3 quality lentil.
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Some growers accused the grain commission of tightening its grading specifications so that a crop that was a No. 2 in the 2009-10 crop year became an Extra No. 3 or worse this year.
But according to Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, the problem was inconsistent grading rather than with the grading standards.
Nobody was used to seeing such abysmal quality, especially with the red lentil crop, which is a relative newcomer to prairie agriculture.
“In the past, a No. 2 has been a good quality No. 2, so it hasn’t approached the line between a No. 2 and a No. 3. This year it’s fuzzy,” said pulse growers executive director Garth Patterson.
The industry organized meetings with the Canadian Grain Commission at its Saskatoon office in late October where a solution emerged.
Dennis said the commission prepared colour prints for red lentils to help guide those grading this year’s crop, but the processors, farmers and grain company representatives attending the meetings decided the prints wouldn’t help.
Instead, the group agreed on how much bleaching and coppering would be permitted in each grade. The numbers are not set in stone but provide a rough guide for those involved in the grading process.
Dennis said he has never seen such a diverse group of individuals work so co-operatively on finding a solution to a grading issue.
“It went a long way in bringing some consistency back to the industry,” he said.
Not everybody is convinced the situation has been sorted out.
Mar tin Chadwick, senior vice-president of Canada and international operations for Bissma Pacific Inc., said the trade is comfortable with green lentil quality standards but has lost confidence in what is meant by a No. 2 red lentil.
During the question and answer portion of the lentil market outlook session at Pulse Days 2011, Chidwick told growers that lentil traders are reluctant to come out with new crop contracts until they have a better understanding of what is what.
“How do we as an exporter position ourselves when our terms of reference have changed and our buyers are upset?” he said.
Patterson doesn’t believe Chidwick’s confusion is indicative of how the rest of the trade feels.
“We know there’s a lot of lentils being traded and moving right now, so others haven’t expressed that concern to us,” he said.
Dennis said the new grading technique will be evaluated at the pulse subcommittee meeting this spring, which will discuss whether it should be permanently incorporated into the grain grading guide.
