Indian market reopens to peas

Dec 12, 2023

India is temporarily lifting its import tariffs and restrictions on peas.

President of Pulse Canada Greg Cherewyk says they received word Thursday night that India was temporarily opening the market for peas.

"We received a notice from the Indian government that suggested that the duties applied to peas had been eliminated or lifted through to the end of March 2024. After seeking some additional clarification on the rest of those restrictions, we have since learned that the other restrictions have also been lifted. So effectively, the Indian market is open for peas from today through to the end of March 2024."

In November of 2017, India raised tariffs on all pulses from all origins to maximum levels, and then in 2018, they layered on some additional restrictions.

They put minimum price restrictions on top of that, they put a quantitative restriction of 150,000 tonnes in place and unlimited entry to one particular port, the Port of Kolcata.

He says for all intents and purposes, they shut the door to imports of peas in the early part of 2018.

"The market had been a been a really important market for Canadian peas. Leading up to that point, we had shipped anywhere between 900,000 tonnes and 1.3 million tonnes. And in the span of, you know, six months or so that market completely disappeared for us. "

Cherewyk says news that the market has reopened is very significant for producers adding that while the March 31st deadline seems tight it's something that the industry feels they can work with.

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Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

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For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

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Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”