Brian Clancey/
His new book on pulse market data

The International Year of Pulses (IYOP) ended with significant growth in the amount of pulses grown in the world and the amount traded.

There are many reasons for this, not the least of which was work by organizing committees around the world to prepare for the IYOP the moment it was declared by the United Nations.

Work with food manufacturers by associations and individual companies resulted in numerous products being announced during the past year which use whole pulses and protein, starch, and fiber fractions. That is reflected in rising domestic usage of pulses in several countries and recent purchases by companies taking advantage of this growth in demand.

Trade data does not differentiate between pulses imported for use by canners, packagers, mills, or fractionation facilities. But, it does not give you a sense of changes in trade flows. Accessing that data is not always an easy task for individual companies. When available, data is often in forms which are difficult to analyze and compare with previous periods.

Trying to address this problem, STAT Publishing recently released a PDF book, which is available as a free download. The book can be downloaded at: https://www.statpub.com/book/index.php/ books/showbook/36

The book contains export trade data for the main categories of pulses from Canada, the United States, and Australia.

There are also selected tables from other countries, including Russia and China. Those tables show export movement by commodity and destination for the current period and previous marketing or calendar years.

Supplementing the trade tables are supply and demand forecasts for major pulses for Canada, the United States, Australia, and selected countries.

Supply and demand forecasts are always difficult because the situation is fluid, effected by changes in crop conditions in importing and exporting countries as well as changes in phytosanitary rules.

Even so, the such forecasts offer an excellent starting point for developing your own view of what is likely to happen in the current and coming marketing year.

Combined with trade data, these tables make an important contribution to your efforts to develop business and marketing plans for the coming months.

They do so by giving you concrete evidence of competition for available demand and changes in the focus of some of the world’s most important origins and destinations.

STAT Publishing’s online market information and statistical service is not normally free. But, we thought it was a fitting way to end the IYOP and offer back to the industry concrete and useful information and forecasts.

Supply and demand forecasts are always difficult because the situation is fluid, effected by changes in crop conditions in importing and exporting countries as well as changes in phytosanitary rules.