Few Changes in Food Pea Markets

VANCOUVER - Jan 19/07 - SNS -- European feed pea markets ended the week on a slightly firmer note in local currency terms, reflecting a modest effort to take advantage of the past week advances in corn and soybean values.

However, gains in those markets pose a problem for feed peas in the coming year because of the anticipation field pea area around the world could fade as growers put more land into grains which can be used to produce ethanol.

Markets expect corn area to rise dramatically in the United States this year, while strong prices moderate the decline in soybeans to less than the increase in corn. That land needs to come from somewhere and, unlike Canada, farmers in the United States do not have vast tracts of summerfallow which can be sown this year.

There is real concern in the feed pea sector that production will be off and that human consumption will remain strong enough through 2007-08 to maintain growers bids at levels which continue to discourage them from selling peas as feed.

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