Note that Salvador Potter has just taken over from Geoffrey Gent as CEO of PGRO. He will be compiling these updates from now, and looks forward to working with BEPA members in supporting the British pulse industry.

June has seen some extraordinary rainfall in parts of the Midlands and Yorkshire. Flood losses in the vining pea crop are already evident, but as long as warmer weather is on the way pulses will benefit from the rain. Temperatures remained relatively high, so even without flooding there will be higher disease incidence. Growers who have sprayed to prevent Botrytis and leaf and pod spot diseases, will be in a stronger position.

Cereals 2007

Considerably more optimism and interest in pulses was evident at the show, and the stand was busy for both days. The variety plots demonstrated the improvements in standing ability and the potential of high yield of the new peas and the future of both new spring and winter field beans was also discussed

PGRO Open Day

A well-attended Open Day gave Geoffrey the ideal opportunity to say farewell to members and PGRO staff.

Turning to crop trading, the really good news is that pulse prices remain very firm.

Feed Beans

Trading in new crop beans and peas has been very slow in June with little being offered from growers or merchants.

Export Beans

Because of the current high feed prices bagged beans are very difficult to trade forward into traditional Middle Eastern markets. Egypt has an annual demand of 350,000 tonnes but French and Australian crops will also compete. As long as moisture (15%) and Bruchid (3%) criteria are met there will be good demand from UK; strong motivation for winter bean planting. There is also some feed bean export demand from Spain.

Marrowfats

The smaller UK acreage and level of interest already from China and Japan mean marrowfats with good colour will command strong prices this year.

Canadian prices are on the increase and Eastern European quality is lower than that of the UK, so growers paying attention to good colour samples will be very well rewarded. Movement is slow as canners focus on vining peas, which have little carryover and are now affected by the flooding.

The holiday (chip-shop)

trade too is being affected by the weather, and summer business has yet to take off.

Blue Peas

Prices have fallen from their peak a couple of weeks ago but stocks are low and there is already a good micronising requirement, so the crop will be in demand. Export interest remains low at these prices – most of the exports this year were at prices agreed prior to the last harvest. Since then prices peaked at over £50/tonne above those levels. Take care to avoid pale colour and pea moth damage, and there will be good premiums available.

Yellow Peas

Stocks are very low and bird feed traders are looking for material to fill existing orders.

New crop will therefore be in demand and a possible added interest in yellow pea flour for gluten-free foods can only help.

Bruchid beetle research

PGRO has been awarded a Defra funded LINK project to improve the monitoring and control of Bruchid beetle. The academic partners including PGRO, Rothamsted Research and NIAB with industrial partners Bayer, Syngenta, Frontier, Wherry, Nickersons, CPB-Twyford, Velcourt, Oecos and HDC.