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The Power Of Pulses: 2016 The Biggest Year Yet For The Pulse Industry

The pulse crop industry in Saskatchewan has grown substantially in the past few decades. This year, a record 5.3 million lentil acres were planted in the province. The Regina Leader-Post is taking an in-depth look into this industry, with a four-part series entitled The Power of Pulses.
 
Wednesday: The origins of pulse crops in Saskatchewan.
 
Thursday: Soil and health benefits of pulses.
 
Friday: Pulse processing in the province.
 
Today: Taking the current pulse of pulses.
 
 
Pulses have become a success story in Saskatchewan. In 2015, $3.8 billion worth of pulse crops were traded to countries around the world.
 
“That’s up exponentially since 1990…where we traded about $67 million worth. That represents a 5,501 per cent increase since 1990,” said Chris Dekker, president and CEO of Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP).
 
Depending on the year, pulses fall third or fourth for exports in the province behind oil, gas and potash. Pulses are sometimes lumped in with canola oil for exports.
 
A record number of lentil acres were seeded in Saskatchewan this year, with 5.3 million acres planted. Not all of those acres may come to fruition after a wet July — which isn’t the best for lentil crops. This year’s lentil crop, however, is still a far cry from the wheat-filled fields of Saskatchewan’s past.
 
“We’re still the bread basket to the world. But that breadbasket also now includes many other agricultural products as I had mentioned — canola, and wheat, and peas, and soy, barley, canary seed. It’s quite the basket now,” Dekker added.
 
Pulse prices are high in Saskatchewan currently, with lentils selling at $629 per tonne last year. Price has been a large incentive for the growth of lentil acres.
 
“The number of acres have ballooned. And so therefore, the potential is there for price drop,” said Norm Hall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
 
Saskatchewan is the top grower of lentils in the country, growing 90 per cent of the country’s lentil exports.
 
It’s not just a big year for pulses in Saskatchewan but internationally as well, with the United Nations having designated 2016 as International Year of Pulses (IYP).
 
“The United Nations has identified an array of challenges that we face including nutrition, non-communicable diseases and feeding hungry people. Food security is important and so it seemed that pulses hit on a number of the goals that the United Nations have,” said Lee Moats, chair of Pulse Canada.
 
The Canadian committee for IYP has been focusing on bringing more awareness to pulses.
 
“Pretty well everybody knows what peas, and beans, and chickpeas, and lentils are — not everybody knows that that’s a pulse,” said Allison Ammeter, chair of the Canadian IYP committee.
 
The organization has partnered with the medical community in order to raise awareness of the nutritional and health benefits of pulses.
 
In the food processing community, the Canadian IYP committee has conducted a series of workshops. The first workshop was held at the Canadian International Grains Institute in Winnipeg and taught food processors about milling pulses and using them in breads and pastas. A second workshop is to be held at POS Bio-Sciences in Saskatoon and will focus on high-tech engineering with wet and dry fractionation.
 
Source : Leaderpost

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