Canada is the world’s biggest exporter of peas and lentils, and the pulse industry wants to keep that status.
Growers and marketers are hoping new data from the Canadian Grain Commission will help them better understand and market pulses.
This year, the grain commission has made peas and lentils a part of its annual harvest survey.
Researcher Phil Williams, who heads the survey, said the commission has collected small samples of peas and lentils for years. But this year, it will collect a large, representative number of samples from a broad area.
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Williams said the survey was made possible with funding from the newly formed grower-industry body Pulse Canada, and the enthusiasm of president Gordon Bacon.
The commission will test factors such as size, color, protein and digestible energy in peas, and seed size distribution by type of lentils.
Bacon said Pulse Canada is interested in learning whether climate, management and variety differences across the Prairies affect the consistency in factors such as cooking time for lentils.
“I think it’s an important first step in understanding the quality of the crop that we’re going to be putting on the world market.”
The big picture
Canadian companies that sell peas and lentils already have a fix on the quality of pulses they buy, said Bacon. But the harvest survey will give a broader, overall picture of what’s available.
Bacon said the real value of the harvest survey will come after several years, when the industry has an objective, broad history of the quality of the crop.
“It fits, I think, in our goal of being the preferred supplier of pulse crops, to be knowledgeable about the product that we have, and better meet customer needs by matching available product with their demands,” said Bacon.
Coming into mainstream
Garth Patterson, executive director of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, said pulses are now a mainstream prairie crop, so he’s pleased they will be part of the commission’s annual survey.
“With the change in acreage that we’ve had going on now, pulses, especially peas, are becoming almost a standard part of the rotation for growers,” said Patterson.
He said the industry will examine the data to find out whether there are regional differences in quality, and will then ponder whether grades adequately reflect the quality of the crops.
Patterson said in the past year or so, American and Australian competitors have been talking about developing international standards for pulses.
“We don’t want to see that happen until we know what we have and we’re part of that. The worst thing that can happen is a competitor develops a standard that is not in your favor.”
About 50 chickpea growers will also send in samples to the commission this year.
The grain commission asks about 14,000 randomly selected farmers for samples of malting barley, oats, rye, canola, flax, durum and seven classes of wheat.
Williams said he expects about 25 percent of the farmers to respond, although he wishes the response rate was closer to 40 percent.
