Canada’s toughest pulse crop competitor in the Indian market may have production problems.
A story that ran in the Myanmar Times says pulse crops in northern Myanmar are suffering from drought. Myanmar, a neighbour of India, is a major pulse exporter.
“The total production of pigeon pea will be reduced by more than 20 percent,” said U Sai Ba Nyan, vice-chair of the Myanmar Pulses, Beans and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association.
“We expect beans and pulses prices will be high in the coming export season because India, the major buyer of our beans and pulses, has also suffered from abnormal weather.”
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Other reports cast doubt on the Myanmar Times story.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting 4.7 million tonnes of pulse production in Myanmar, which would be slightly above average.
Raghavan Sampathkumar, an international market promotion consultant for Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, who lives in India, said there hasn’t been much talk of production problems in Myanmar.
“I talk to the importers regularly and haven’t heard anything about the shortfall. Probably the supplies might not have got affected, so nobody here is bothered about it,” he said in an e-mail.
It has not affected Myanmar’s export program. The country, located across the Bay of Bengal from India, shipped 1.12 million tonnes of pulses through the first seven months of 2012. That’s already approaching last year’s 12 month total of 1.36 million tonnes.
India takes about two-thirds of Myanmar’s pulse exports, including almost all of its 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes of annual pigeon pea production. That product competes directly with Canadian lentils.
Pulse markets heated up earlier this year when it looked like India’s kharif or summer crop was going to be smaller because of reduced plantings and poor monsoon rain.
Pigeon peas are a big kharif crop. Canadian green lentils have proven to be a good substitute for pigeon peas when that crop is short.
However, the latest crop report shows India’s farmers planted 24.4 million acres of pulses, which is six percent below normal. Monsoon rains have picked up, and pulse prices in India are falling.
Sampathkumar said even if India’s and Myanmar’s pigeon pea crops were short, it wouldn’t necessarily result in improved demand for Canadian green lentils.
“There is plenty of (pigeon pea) stocks available from African countries,” he said.
“Also, the Indian rupee continues to slide against (the U.S. dollar), which is one of the major concerns for the importers.”
Sampathkumar said importers would prefer to buy pigeon peas from Tanzania and Malawi rather than Canadian green lentils if the landed costs of the competing products are comparable.
