N.A. Beans Struggle to Find Place

VANCOUVER - Apr 30/08 - SNS -- North America's dry edible bean industry has found it increasingly difficult to maintain grower interest in recent years. Field crop markets were in a general downtrend through the summer of 2006, resulting in a steady rise in the amount of land in summerfallow in western Canada along with reduced investments in both crop inputs and farming operations in general. Beans more or less held their own during this period.

Everything changed during the 2006-07 marketing year as the number of ethanol plants operating in the United States skyrocketed. The "need" to dramatically increase land in corn resulting in surging values for that commodity, pulling millions of acres from other crops in the spring on 2007.

The "need" to bring production of soybeans and wheat back in line with market needs, resulted in the bull market runs of the past winter, and could result in too few acres of corn being planted in the United States this spring. The "need" to increase corn area to a more realistic level should sustain the rivalry with soybeans through at least next spring.

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