Controversial Start to Red Lentil Season

VANCOUVER - Sep 5/06 - SNS -- The 2006-07 marketing year for red lentils started with a surprising level of controversy over price as a smattering of "glass half empty" individuals publicly capitulated even before the season got underway.

Last winter's relatively rosy price forecasts and enthusiasm about world needs prior to seeding gave the sector's critics plenty of ammunition to start shooting as prices relaxed into harvest and end users failed to come begging for the season's first container of red splits to be shipped their way.

As it turns out, the 2006-07 marketing year is not shaping up to be the worst in the history of the crop. That distinction belongs to 2001-02 when inter-dealer markets averaged just U.S. $13.56 between August of 2001 and July of 2002. During the first month of the 2006-06 marketing campaign, inter-dealer markets averaged U.S. $16.56 cwt on a delivered track Montreal basis.

However, because that period coincided with the worst performance in the history of the Canadian dollar, a weak market was hidden from western Canadian growers. Grower bids only averaged U.S. $9.83 per 100 pounds (cwt) in 2001-02, but Canada's 64 cent dollar turned that into a $15.44 cwt return.

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