The market for edible peas took a tumble over the past two weeks.
There are reports of a sudden slump in Prairie cash prices of about 30 to 50 cents a bushel as demand has backed off.
Currently, bids are indicated at $5 a bushel, picked up on farm, or $5.50 a bushel, delivered plant, for February-March in Saskatchewan -- but there are very few buyers looking to even do this at this time.
Green peas are indicated at $6.50 a bushel, freight on board farm, or $7 a bushel, delivered plant, for February-March movement as well.
There is little demand, and buyers are not looking for much product right now.
On new crop, here too, not much if anything for fall delivered bids at this time for any type of pea.
There has been a sense of disappointment with recent India tender results, and after cleaning up residual Vancouver cash length at lower replacement price levels to countries such as Cuba, it would appear prices have been pushed down in the search for fresh demand. Perhaps too, it's an effort to stymie producer interest in moving product into the cash market.
At early January, Vancouver-based cash bids of US $280-285 a tonne have since eroded, especially over the past week, to as low as US $250-255 a tonne offered.
Some softness in the Canadian dollar has blunted the full negative impact, at least to some small degree, but US $255 a tonne at Vancouver represents $5.50 a bushel in southwestern Saskatchewan. But that’s only what the seller is “offering” -- few buyers stepping up at this time.
Obviously this is not a comfortable marketing position for growers to be in.
No real transparent export buyer bids out there other than India, which is currently bid below the market, so market activity is stalled again. India so far this year has not been the aggressive buyer they were the past two marketing years, and there’s no immediate indication that sorry situation is about to change.
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