Pulse Account Over-Draft

VANCOUVER - Aug 11/15 - SNS -- Pulse harvests in North America and Europe and well underway. The Canadian harvest started earlier than normal because a lengthy period of hot and dry weather ripened crops in some areas more quickly than usual. This has made markets worry about the final yield and quality of this year's harvests. Heading into the harvest, those fears offset any bearish influence from excellent progress seeding this year's kharif season pulse crops in India.

It will be several months before official production estimates are available for Canada, which remains the world's largest exporter of field peas and lentils. It would not be surprising to see controversy surround those production estimates, with a segment of the industry saying the numbers are too high. That is a frequent complaint in countries which are net exporters of pulses.

These statistics are important to markets. They form the basis for the global fundamentals from which markets get their underlying direction. It is critical to recall, however, that day to day markets are more strongly influenced by the ebb and flow of offers from farmers versus demand from the trade. This constant interplay between all participants suggests markets have greater knowledge of the actual supply and demand fundamentals than individual participants.