Smaller Bean Crops, Improved Demand
WASHINGTON - Oct 21/16 - SNS -- Excluding chickpeas, dry edible bean production in Canada and the United States now stands at an estimated 1.346 million metric tons (MT), down from 1.495 million last year.
There was a net decline in white bean production from just over 323,000 MT to almost 270,000. This is down from the recent five-year average of 326,500 MT. Colored bean output in the two countries is up modestly, rising from 1.286 to 1.298 million MT, remaining well above the previous five-year average of 1.133 million.
By contrast, production in the NAFTA region is expected to increase modestly from over 2.46 to almost 2.51 million MT, reflecting optimism that output in Mexico will rebound across its 2016-17 production cycle.
Chances that Mexico will import fewer beans during the first half of 2017 could see total export trade in beans drop from 320,000 MT last season to around 305,000. Even so, residual supplies of beans should decline from this summer's 286,000 to 241,000 MT by the end of the marketing year.
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