MarketsFarm — Unpredictable weather overseas resulted in robust fababean prices during 2018’s harvest, and Canadian producers expect these prices to hold throughout the 2019 growing season.
“For the growers that managed to get fababeans off their field, I think they were probably quite happy with the markets in 2018,” said Leanne Fischbuch, president of Alberta Pulse Growers.
“There was definitely a rise in market opportunity for fababeans, and that was reflected in the prices.”
At the end of the 2018 harvest, benchmark fababean prices were $270.88 per tonne in central Alberta, $271.58 per tonne in central Saskatchewan, and $296.17 per tonne in southern Manitoba.
Read Also
India, Japan canola crops to be steady in 2026/27 – USDA
Canola supplies for India and Japan are expected to remain relatively stable in the 2026/27 crop year, the United States Department of Agriculture said.
Poor weather conditions in key fababean-producing countries impacted global supply, to the point where Canadian producers reaped the benefits.
Experts predict last year’s market opportunity may be enough to increase fababean acreage numbers for the 2019 growing season.
Currently, benchmark fababean prices are $314.44 per tonne in central Alberta, $319.19 per tonne in central Saskatchewan and $311.21 per tonne in southern Manitoba, according to reports from Alberta Pulse.
“We might see a bit of a jump in acreage this year because of the price,” Fischbuch said.
“Growers might look to fababeans if they haven’t had them in their rotation for a while.”
Canadian producers planted 95,000 acres of fababeans in 2017 and 78,400 in 2018. Statistics Canada releases its first acreage estimate of the year on Wednesday (April 24).
— Marlo Glass writes for MarketsFarm, a Glacier FarmMedia division specializing in grain and commodity market analysis and reporting.
