Parallels can be drawn between the explosion of South American soybean production and what’s happening with pulse crops in two Asian countries.
China and Myanmar have become key producers and exporters of beans, pigeon peas, matpe and mung beans.
While the growth hasn’t been as dramatic or the economic impact as widespread as soybean expansion in Brazil and Argentina, there are similarities.
Pulse Canada officials say it’s nearly impossible to get accurate numbers out of China, but some staggering projections are bandied about.
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The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization says China’s pulse production will surge to about six million tonnes in 2004.
That’s the same amount Canada is expected to produce this year, according to the latest Statistics Canada estimate.
Participants attending last month’s International Pulse Trade and Industry Confederation convention were told Chinese pulse exports doubled to 1.05 million tonnes in 2003 from 540,000 tonnes in 2000.
Kidney beans account for most of that growth, hitting 633,000 tonnes in 2003, up from less than half that amount before 2000. That represents a growth pace of more than 30 percent a year.
Production is expected to continue, expanding by 50 percent over the next six years, according to an official from the Chinese ministry of agriculture who spoke at the conference.
Myanmar is no wilting flower either.
Customs data shows 541,668 tonnes in pulse exports for the first five months of 2004, putting Myanmar on pace to surpass a record one million tonnes for the year. Volumes were less than half that amount four years ago.
Pulse Canada chair Gordon Bacon said Myanmar has become a primary supplier of cheap pulses to the world’s largest consumer.
“Myanmar’s exports to India have a great impact on Indian demand for Canadian product,” he said.
India is one of Canada’s top destinations for peas, lentils and chickpeas, but many of its one billion inhabitants are extremely poor and will switch to cheaper alternatives in a heartbeat.
Myanmar has a distinct advantage over Canada in that regard because it is a low-cost crop producer and is situated much closer to the pulse-consuming giant.
China’s primary export is coloured beans, competing directly with Canadian product in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
In the past it has primarily supplied low quality product to food aid programs but that is changing, said Greg Cherewyk, Pulse Canada’s director of programs.
Foreign investment has helped China improve seed supply and processing facilities.
“No longer are they just the lowest cost producer, they are on track to becoming the lowest cost producer of a pretty good product.”
But Cherewyk is skeptical about claims of China’s pulse sector growing by 50 percent in six years. He doesn’t know where the acreage will come from because there will be competition from soybeans and corn.
When assessing what’s happening in China and Myanmar, the take-home message for Canadian growers is to continue producing top quality product, because that’s where Canada’s strength lies, said Bacon.
Domestic growers are also well positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for high-value, identity preserved product when compared to their Asian counterparts.
“We have multiple cleaning plants in the areas where the crop is grown, where in China, a lot of the cleaning plants are being set up in port cities,” he said.
