Ukraine. Export season outlook for late pulses

As a rule, late pulses (kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils) are harvested in August - September, but the 2021/22 season featured a shift in all field operations and longer growing processes because of a late spring arrival.

According to the State Statistics Service, farmers had harvested pulses from just 298.2 Th ha (94.8% complete) as of October 1, obtaining 674 KMT (+7.6% from 2020), including 579 KMT of peas.

UkrAgroConsult leaves unchanged its crop estimates for major pulses, except for a cut in its chickpea crop projection, as the harvested area shrank in favor of other pulses (vetch, lupine, horse beans).

Exports in the season’s first month are usually low, but this year the difference is more noticeable right because of a late start to harvesting.

Lentil exports show an opposite trend owing to strengthening demand from Turkey, a crop decline in the top lentil growing and exporting country – Canada, etc.

Under the impact of the above world trends, lentils have become the most expensive pulse crop in Ukraine.

The only pulse crop whose prices dropped from last year is kidney beans. This market is relatively stable: the crop in Ukraine is at last year’s level, demand from the main buyer – the EU – also remains unchanged. So, there was no particular reason for price growth, but global supply of kidney beans decreased from MY 2020/21. Therefore, it is not ruled out that their prices in Ukraine will shortly also rise following the world trend or pushed up by growing prices of other pulses.