USDA Helps Clarify World Pulse Picture

VANCOUVER - Jul 11/08 - SNS -- The latest crop report form the USDA helped add some clarity to the supply outlook for the 2008-09 marketing year, including seeded area estimates for field peas and lentils in the United States.

Actual seeded area is a little higher than intended for all classes of field peas and lentils, but total land in peas, lentils and chickpeas will be down slightly from last year at 2.075 million acres.

Most of the decline in seeded area is in lentils, which the USDA reports fell from 303,000 to 279,000 acres in Montana, North Dakota and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Field pea area slipped from 852,6500 to 847,000 acres; while Austrian winter pea seedings slipped from 39,000 to 26,500 acres. The USDA will provide its first chickpea area estimate in next month's crop report. Even so, it looks like seedings collapsed from 108,875 acres in 2007 to around 75,900 this year.

A return to average yields would result in a 12.5% drop in combined production from 1.66 to 1.45 million metric tons (MT). Within the sector, recent five-year average yields would see lentil output drop from 158,305 to 131,000 MT; while field pea production sinks from 708,745 to 630,000 MT; Austrian winter peas climb from 6,804 to 7,807 MT; and chickpeas drop from 72,968 to 50,586 MT.

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