MarketsFarm — Prices for green and yellow peas in Western Canada have remained quite steady over the last week, largely due to the lack of demand, according to Darwin Hamilton of Kalshea Commodities in Winnipeg.
“North American peas are more expensive than the peas coming out of Eastern Europe. A lot of that product is going to China,” he said.
Exports out of Canada to China are pretty much a trickle of what they would normally be at this time of year, which only compounded the current situation, he said. That included east European peas being significantly cheaper than those available from Canada.
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“With the amount of peas we have this year, we got lots of inventory to sell yet,” Hamilton said.
Statistics Canada’s production report on Dec. 2 pegged the country’s dry pea production for 2022-23 at 3.42 million tonnes, for a jump of nearly 52 per cent compared to the previous crop year. However, it’s also over 25 per cent less than what came off Canadian fields in 2020-21.
Hamilton noted a small portion of Canadian-grown peas has been going to the North American pet food industry.
“There’s a limit to that market. It’s a little slow these days,” he continued, adding the holiday lull hasn’t helped the current malaise in the pea market. He pointed to a drop in farmer deliveries to processors and elevators.
“The lack of farmer selling has dropped the prices a little bit because there is some demand, although not huge at this point,” he said.
He also pointed to prices over the last two years as being historically high and now commodities are moving lower. He said he expects pea prices to soften going into 2023.
Over the last week pea prices have remained steady, with no price movement, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire.
Green peas for 2022-23 stood at $13-$14 per bushel delivered to the elevator and yellows were $12-$13.25/bu. New-crop peas ranged from $11.60 to $12/bu. delivered for greens and $10-$11 for yellows.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
