Pulse weekly outlook: Yellow peas selling at a premium

MarketsFarm –– Last summer’s lacklustre pea harvest in Western Canada has helped raise prices, but none more so than those of yellow peas.

Yellow peas were trading at a high-delivered bid of $17.50 per bushel, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire data from Monday, up $1.50 from the same time last month and $9.50 from the previous year.

By comparison, the high-delivered bid Monday for green peas was $16.50/bu., a decrease of 50 cents from the month before but still up $7.50 from a year earlier.

Yellow peas are priced “at $18/bu. within 250 miles of (Minot, N.D.) today,” Dale McManus, broker for Calgary-based Johnston’s Grain, said Monday.

Kent Anholt, operations manager and merchant for Rayglen Commodities in Saskatoon, explained that yellow peas typically see greater demand in the market. He estimates there are three to four times more yellows than greens on the market and while China is a major buyer of yellow peas, they are not currently competitive.

Traders “buy yellows and the North American fractionation market is paying for it. It’s driving the market,” Anholt said. “Overseas trade… is just not as competitive as what the fractionation market is paying locally.”

McManus mentioned that pea production in much of Saskatchewan and Alberta sharply fell due to drought conditions — and it will be a question of whether pea supplies can satisfy ever-growing demand.

“Crops were pretty decent around the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border, but you didn’t have to go too far west of Regina (to see) pretty poor numbers,” he said.

“In normal years, it would be fine. But we have a couple more (pea processing) plants that have opened up and a below-average crop. That’s going to tighten things up,” he added.

“No one has a crystal ball (to predict prices), but $17, $18/bu. is already a historical high,” McManus added.

— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.