French Field Pea Exports Slide 17.6%

VANCOUVER - Aug 17/06 - SNS -- France finished the 2005-06 marketing year posting a 17.6% drop in field pea exports, according to data accumulated by the Union Nationale Interprofessionnelle des Plantes Riches en Proteines (UNIP).

Shipments during the season ended up at 422,250 metric tons (MT), down from 512,555 MT in 2004-05 and establishing a new record low for exports since prior to the expansion of the industry in the 1970s and 1980s.

Exports during the last five seasons have averaged 598,476 MT, down from the average of 877,743 MT exported between 1996-97 and 2000-01; and almost half the average of 1,009,975 MT exported between 1992-93 and 1995-96.

France has always focussed its attention on neighboring countries, who have not replaced those missing peas with product from other origins. Consequently, France's withdrawal has resulting in no net benefit to competing exporters in North America, Australia or eastern Europe.

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