Field Pea Exports Stong in January

VANCOUVER - Jan 5/08 - SNS -- Canadian field pea exports surged in January, lifting port cleaances for the first half of the 2007-08 marketing year 19% ahead of last season, according to data reported by members of the Canadian Ports Clearance Association.

Clearances at terminals reporting to the association totalled 1,038,415 metric tons (MT) between August and January. This compares to 871,714 MT last year and is just above the previous record 1,034,660 MT shipped during the first six months of the 2005-06 marketing campaign.

Massive increases in export shipments of food quality peas to the Indian subcontinent remain the key reason Canadian field pea exports are able to maintain volumes even though feed pea shipments to Spain and other European buyers have plunged.

The 2007 calendar year ended with a decline in year over year field pea exports as shipments finished the year down almost 120,000 MT at 1.49 million MT. However, 2008 is off to a good start with clearances in January nearly double last year.

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