Beans Show Some Price Potential

PANAMA - Jan 25/19 - SNS -- Much of what we know about the current dry edible bean situation in North America is limited to what people say because the partial U.S. government shut down has delayed both the final crop report of the year and export trade data.

The impact goes beyond the United States. Statistics Canada will stop updating export trade data as long as the Census Bureau in the United States is not publishing trade data. This means Canadian export data for December and revised data for 2018 will not be available until U.S. data is available.

While it is impossible to say how long the impasse over the budget will continue in the United States, it needs to be stressed that it does not affect the ability of companies to do business. It simply affects official government data and efforts to obtain a third party view of how many dry edible bean are available and how many have been exported.

The last available data suggests North America has around 2.985 million metric tons of beans available for sale across the 2018-19 marketing year, up slightly from the 2.97 million available the previous marketing year. Both number are just above the 2.95 million metric tons available on average during the previous five marketing years.