As demand grows, now lentils from Canada will feed India

The humble pea is taking over. With vegetarians in Asia hungry for lentils, chickpeas and other sources of protein, North American farmers are swapping out wheat in favour of pulses — plants harvested for dry seeds, such as legumes. AGT Food and Ingredients, the world’s largest exporter of peas and lentils, says farmers in Canada are poised to seed record acres of the crops this year.

“We have to recognise that the demand for vegetable protein in the emerging markets and in Asia is continuing to rise,” CEO Murad Al-Katib said. Plantings of peas and lentils in Canada will rise 33% in 2016 to 10 million acres, Al-Katib said.

“Every pulse is at historically high prices right now cereal grains are not; oilseeds are not,” Al-Katib said.

INDIAN DEMAND: Canada’s lentil shipments to India, the world’s top buyer, more than doubled from a year earlier to 252,600 metric tonnes from August through February, government data show.

Consumption is growing for high-protein legumes as food companies add them to everything from breakfast cereals to snacks. Export demand for peas will stay robust if harvests in India are smaller than expected. Output is also increasing in the US, where lentil sowings reached 4,93,000 acres in 2015, 75% higher than the prior season and the largest in five years, according to government data.

Production climbed more than 50% from the prior year.

‘MONEY CROP’: “Pulse acres are going to go up this year, because that’s the big money crop,” Norm Hall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said.
Prices for peas have almost quadrupled in the past five years, and farmers are able to get the same yields as wheat with lower fertiliser costs, said Hall, who has planted pulses on his Saskatchewan farm for the past 30 years.