REGINA: Jim Etter, a pulses farmer from Saskatchewan in Canada, has been keenly following the monsoon’s progress in India. After two years of good business, he expects markets to soften in the second half of 2016 with news of good rains in India. However, he is optimistic that with a growing economy and increasing purchasing power, Indians will eat more pulses and he will get the opportunity to sell more.
India is the biggest importer, consumer and producer of pulses with consumption touching 22-23 million tonne annually. It imports 3-4 million tonnes of the commodity from Canada, Australia, Myanmar and some African countries to meet the demand-supply gap. In 2015, Canada exported approximately $1.5 billion (2.4 million tonne) worth of pulses to India.
Like Etter, other farmers, traders and companies across Canada who grow, process and trade pulses for India’s domestic market are closely monitoring the country’s weather conditions, upcoming tenders to import pulses and the Indian government’s policy on creating buffer and ensuring higher support prices for farmers.
“I have doubled the acreage under lentil this year to 4,500 acres from last year’s 2,300 acres due to the good prices I got,” said Etter, who farms on 7,000 acres in Richardson village, 10 km from Regina city in Saskatchewan. The farmer has 8,500 tonne of storage capacity in his farm and is looking to directly export pulses to India.
Farmers in Canada grow red lentil (masur), yellow peas (matar), green peas and green lentil for the Indian market. They are also trying to increase production of ‘kabuli chana’ and ‘desi chana’, looking at the market demand.
Generally, farmers who grow pulses in Canada sign contracts with large processors from Cargill to Glencore prior to seed plantation. Saskatchewan and Alberta are the key growing regions.
