Million Acre Drop in Canadian Lentils

PANAMA - Mar 27/17 - SNS -- Recent declines in grower bids for Canadian lentils will likely have a negative influence on how many acres of the crop are sown in Canada this year.

Seeding intentions for the United States will be released at the end of the week, while markets need to wait until April 21 to learn what Statistics Canada discovered in its survey of growers.

So far during the current marketing year, grower bids have averaged 30% lower than the average for the entire 2015-16 marketing campaign. The impact this will have on seeding intentions depends on several additional factors.

One is the effort going into convincing farmers to lengthen rotations to break disease cycles in lentils. There is an argument that the crop should not be planted in the same field more than once every four to five years. This message seems to be getting through to growers in some areas and has the potential to put an upward cap on area among experienced growers. However, it is easier to be disciplined when prices are weak than when they are strong.