It may be time for lentil growers to consider selling low quality product into feed markets, says the executive director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers.
Garth Patterson just returned from a trade mission to the Indian subcontinent, where a Saskatchewan delegation conducted four seminars in India, two in Bangladesh and one in Sri Lanka.
“At all seven of our meetings the trade told us the same thing. They were not happy with the quality of Canadian lentils,” he said.
Pulse traders in Sri Lanka are so fed up with what they’ve received that they’ve stopped buying them in favour of Australian product.
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It speaks volumes about the condition of Canadian lentils when a region typically more concerned about price than anything else is raising a fuss about quality.
“I think we’re going to have a carryover of the poor quality lentil. I’m not sure if it’s going to find a home on the food market,” said Patterson.
Growers must decide if they want to carrysuppliesoverintothenextcropyear or compete with peas in feed markets.
Stat Publishing reports lentil exports are down roughly 250,000 tonnes for the first half of the 2010-11 marketing year, compared to the previous year.
Shipments to India are down 144,000 tonnes.
Agriculture Canada is forecasting 450,000 tonnes of carryout, which would be 10 times higher than at the end of 2009-10.
Patterson heard nothing during his trip to dispute the Indian government’s estimate of a 16.51 million tonne pulse harvest in 2010-11, which would dwarf the previous five-year average of 14.32 million tonnes.
That also doesn’t bode well for future lentil demand. He is not as worried about peas due to the record-setting pace of exports during the first seven months of this marketing year.
Indian pulses from the rabi or winter season crop are starting to hit local markets, so demand for imported pulses is expected to start slowing.
March is traditionally a slow time for imports because Indian taxes are due at the end of the month and some buyers don’t want to have outstanding supplies on the books to carry over.
Patterson said one take-home message from the trip is that buyers felt blind-sided by the abysmal condition of Canadian lentils this year.
“I think the opportunity for us is to be more proactive in the future in communicating what the quality of our crop is,” he said.
Part of the confusion stems from the fact that lentils are not traded based on Canadian Grain Commission grades. They are bought and sold on a No. 2 or better trade specification.
Lentil buyers are particularly upset by the amount of wrinkling they’re seeing in Canadian product, which reduces milling efficiency.
Wrinkling is not a grading factor in Canada but the CGC is conducting tests and will make a recommendation to the pulse subcommittee on whether it should in the future.
“Our concern would be if it’s going to become a grading factor, is there a way to assess that fairly?” said Patterson.
There would need to be a system that identifies wrinkling damage rapidly, accurately and repeatedly.
