Pulse Trade Patterns Shifting

PANAMA - Aug 22/18 - SNS -- World trade patterns in pulses have changed significantly since India reinstated import duties on pulses and more strictly applied its requirement that cargoes be fumigated with methyl bromide at time of shipment.

The willingness of the United States to enter into trade disputes with several countries has also contributed to shifting trade patterns because of the imposition of retaliatory import duties on a wide range of U.S. agricultural products.

Trade wears always have unintended consequences. One is to remind importers of the need to have more diversified sources of supply and look at substitute products when that is an option.

China's emergence as the world's largest importer of pulses so far in 2018 is a direct consequence. Demand for peas and other pulses by the country's noodle makers and fractionation industry were already expected to grow. What was not expected was that its livestock feed industry would look for replacements for soybean meal, resulting in a massive jump in demand for field peas to be used to make compound feeds. Prices for peas had dropped because of poor demand from India, making them competitive substitutes for other ingredients used by China's compound feed industry.