Aussies, Canadians co-operate on pulses

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Published: January 17, 2002

One of Canada’s main pulse export competitors says the two countries

are starting to think of each other as partners rather than rivals.

Gavin Gibson, chief executive officer of Pulse Australia Limited, said

Canada and Australia no longer duke it out in overseas markets.

International pulse traders who buy product from a multitude of

exporting regions are competing for those markets, not representatives

of individual countries.

“Which is why Pulse Australia and Pulse Canada are working very, very

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closely together on a whole range of issues, because although we are

competitors, we see ourselves more and more growing as partners,”

Gibson said.

One of the main issues the two countries are co-operating on, in

conjunction with a few other exporting nations, is developing a set of

international pulse quality standards.

But Canada and Australia are also sharing research and conducting joint

market development trade missions around the world in an attempt to

create a bigger pulse pie.

“Once we’ve got the new market, then we’ll compete for market share.”

He made the comments in an interview after delivering a speech to the

1,550 farmers who attended Pulse Days 2002 in Saskatoon.

During his presentation, Gibson said Australian producers are moving

away from pulses grown for feed and embracing human consumption crops

grown for the export market.

“A steady sustained growth in the exports of pulses for human

consumption from Australia into the future is expected as demand

continues to increase in the major consuming countries and production

in those countries plateaus or declines.”

This year, the country is well positioned to take advantage of that

burgeoning demand.

Production estimates for the 2001-02 Australian crop now being

harvested are bullish. Gibson expects 236,000 tonnes of lentils,

330,000 tonnes of peas and 237,000 tonnes of chickpeas.

“This most recent season has seen what promises to be a record year for

yields in almost all pulse crops, despite unexpected frosts and rain

during harvest in eastern states.”

Lentil production is up a projected 44 percent from last year due to

“superb growing conditions” in southern Australia. This year’s numbers

are abnormally large, but there is a general trend for growth in lentil

acreage, Gibson said. The country mainly produces red lentils that are

split and exported.

The chickpea harvest is forecast to come in 58 percent higher than last

year’s crop, which was devastated by a flood that swept away nearly

80,000 tonnes of chickpeas in the eastern state of New South Wales.

Field peas are the only pulse crop where production fell, dropping from

401,000 tonnes last year to an anticipated 330,000 tonnes this year.

Poor prices drove seeded acreage down 18 percent to 642,000 acres.

“It just isn’t viable for farmers to grow them,” Gibson said.

“So farmers, where they can, are diversifying into crops that they see

as having growth (potential) in the world market, like red lentils.”

Production of the other major crop destined for the protein market is

also projected to slump. Farmers are expected to harvest a little more

than one million tonnes of lupins, down from the long-term average of

about 1.4 million tonnes.

About the author

Sean Pratt

Sean Pratt

Reporter/Analyst

Sean Pratt has been working at The Western Producer since 1993 after graduating from the University of Regina’s School of Journalism. Sean also has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and worked in a bank for a few years before switching careers. Sean primarily writes markets and policy stories about the grain industry and has attended more than 100 conferences over the past three decades. He has received awards from the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, North American Agricultural Journalists and the American Agricultural Editors Association.

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