Peter Smith, President of BEPA, comments on developments in the pulse market this month.

Summary

There is little to report for market activity this month, apart from the bearish effects after very high USA corn planting/stock estimates sent commodities down across the board, as funds responded by baling out of the sector.

June figures from France suggest that the recent rainfall was very beneficial to yields with the most recent forecast predicting an increase of 10% to 4t/ha. Overall pulse acres in France were 22% down on last year with 195,000 ha peas and 106,000 ha of beans awaiting harvest – the latter likely to start in 3 weeks time.

The UK crop has also responded well to the recent rainfall and yields are now estimated to be higher than last year, given good weather at harvest.

Feed Beans

At the current £50-£55/tonne premium over wheat there is little or no demand for feed beans, and little old crop to be had anyway.

Recent falls in wheat (see above) have pulled feed beans down from some £240 to just over £200/tonne ex-farm for both new and old crop.  Without feed demand for new crop, these premiums will come under further pressure.

Human Consumption Beans

Egyptian buyers were active for a while in June and took some Australian and French cargoes of old crop beans. However, there is a standoff at the moment with no trade reported recently.  

More recent prices from France appear to be higher than those from UK so perhaps some lessons have been learnt from last year.

With so many old crop beans in the Egyptian market now the market will remain depressed there and it is only five weeks away from the French harvest.

Marrowfats

General feedback is that 2011 crops look good and have benefited from the rain.  However, there remains a high carry-over of varying quality.

China and Japan are looking for new crop peas which augurs well for the autumn trade.

Blue Peas

This crop is likely to be in very short supply after a much lower acreage this last spring, and some growers are keeping their peas over in the hope a shortage does develop. There is some continental interest too for blues.

White Peas

Canadian price offers for this type are well below those of the UK - which is a surprise, given their relatively low stock and planting position this year.