Whither Canada's Domestic Feed Pea?

VANCOUVER - Sep 16/06 - SNS -- Statistics Canada's July 31 carry over estimates ended up higher than expected for field peas; lower for lentils; and close to pre-report forecasts for mustard, sunflower and canaryseed.

The most significant question raised by the stock numbers and other known data is what has happened to Canada's domestic feed pea market? We posed that question after the March 31 stocks in all positions report, which made it clear Canada's domestic feed pea market was shrinking in during the 2005-06 season.

The 2005-06 marketing year ended with 480,000 metric tons (MT) of field peas on hand. Preliminary, official exports for the season total 2,569 million MT, for an inferred domestic usage of 645,896 MT, down from 1.096 million in 2004-05 and 913,266 MT in 2003-04.

Canadian domestic usage includes almost 250,000 MT of planting seed and 75,000 MT is allocated to other uses, for an inferred feed and waste number of 377,681 MT in 2005-06, down from 837,420 MT in 2004-05 and 620,623 MT in 2003-04. Imports from the United States are included in available supply estimates for the marketing year and are official data from the U.S. Bureau of Census for all classes of whole and split dry peas.

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