Market Shocked by Lentil Decline

VANCOUVER - Apr 25/06 - SNS -- Canadian lentil markets have discovered what happens when markets drop to levels which growers believe guarantee a loss on last year's crop -- they grow something else.

Poor prices across the 2005-06 marketing campaign and a general unwillingness by processors and exporters to offer new crop contracting programs to western Canadian growers has destroyed interest in growing a crop where price risks have expanded enormously in recent years.

Statistics Canada's survey of 17,100 farming operations between March 17 and 31 discovered Saskatchewan's lentil growers plan to slash seeded area from 2.16 million to 1.3 million acres this year. This stands in sharp contrast to Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food's informal survey, which predicted growers in the province would plant 1.99 million acres of lentils.

The seeding intentions estimate is also well below pre-report expectations by the trade, who were looking for little change in total plantings in western Canada. Though, they were expecting to see a strong shift from large and small green lentils into red.

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