Farmers watching the markets will be well aware there’s an El Nino climatic pattern in the works.
But traders are both hot and cold to what the pattern means for pulse markets.
Martin Chidwick, of Xcan Grain Pool Ltd., said he has no doubt El Nino brought the southern hemisphere a mild winter and northern Europe a longer summer, lowering lentil consumption.
“In the heat, one doesn’t want to do any cooking, one doesn’t want to eat stews and soups and casseroles,” he explained.
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“One would rather just eat lettuce leaves and drink a beer.”
Other sectors have also suffered because of the heat, he said, such as textile manufacturers in Peru who are stuck with unsold winter coats.
But Brian Clancey, of Stat Publishing in Vancouver, who writes a market newsletter on pulse crops, warned against attributing too much to the not fully understood powers of El Nino.
Clancey said he hasn’t noticed a drop in demand for lentils from export customers south of the equator.
“Everything I see suggests their import demand is up and, perhaps in some cases, that they’ve overbought,” he said.
Clancey said El Nino won’t affect pea and lentil markets until there are definite production problems related to the weather, and countries that rely on the crops start building stocks.
