A deadly combination of multiple frosts, wet weather and white mould devastated navy and pinto beans this year.
Bean crops were hit hard in Minnesota, North Dakota and Manitoba, causing prices to surge to near record levels in the United States.
Canadian values are lagging behind due to the mitigating effect of a rising dollar. But growers who managed to harvest a decent crop of navies or pintos will still be looking at good returns, say industry analysts.
“There’s not much doubt in my mind that this market is going to remain firm until the summer months,” said Ivan Sabourin, president of Roy Legumex Inc., one of Canada’s largest bean processors.
Read Also
Supreme Court gives thumbs-up emoji case the thumbs down
Saskatchewan farmer wanted to appeal the court decision that a thumbs-up emoji served as a signature to a grain delivery contract.
The harvest in Manitoba, where 65 percent of Canada’s 2004 bean crop was planted, has been disastrous.
“We’re expecting less than half of a normal crop this year and of that half there will be some challenges because of quality,” said Sabourin.
He is bracing for a trying year in the bean processing sector. Product will be short and what is available will require cleaning and sorting.
“I’ve never seen a year where I haven’t bought beans off the combine,” said Sabourin.
Don Sissons, president of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association, offered this summary of the 2004 bean crop:
“It’s just a year from hell.”
Many Red River Valley producers dodged the Aug. 20 frost, but their crops succumbed to a far worse one that arrived on Oct. 1.
Growers in Sissons’ area of the province expect to harvest less than half a crop.
“It’s terrible. It’s probably the worst yield that we’ve seen historically.”
Crop still in the field is not a sure bet either.
“Before you know it you’ve got freeze-up and winter is upon you. It’s not like corn and sunflowers. Very rarely do you get a chance to harvest edible beans out of the snow.”
Growers south of the Manitoba border are facing a similar plight. In its latest forecast, the U.S. Department of Agriculture scaled back its August bean estimate by 12 percent. This year’s crop is now expected to come in at 847,886 tonnes, the smallest crop in 16 years.
Minnesota and North Dakota lost nearly one-third of their bean crops since August due to frost and heavy rain. That would usually be good news for Canadian growers, but not this year, said Sissons.
“It doesn’t mean a whole lot to Manitoba when you’re having a wreck. When you have no beans to sell then sky-high market prices don’t mean anything.”
But it does have some significance for producers in Alberta who harvested 55,000 acres of good quality coloured beans, said Agricore United special crops manager Blair Roth.
Many of the province’s growers have pooling program contracts with Agricore that allow them to take advantage of market swings.
Sabourin said the price increases will primarily be limited to navy and pinto beans because Ontario and Michigan harvested good crops of the other classes of coloured beans.
He doesn’t know where prices will wind up but it’s not going to be pretty for processors forced to buy product on the open market to fill contracts.
“There are definitely people who are going to be short,” said the trader.
Roth said the Manitoba bean industry is solid and should be able to withstand this market blip. And he doesn’t expect the poor production year to slow the steady growth of the province’s bean industry.
“If anything, (the high prices) will help encourage production next year.”
