Lentil Market Update Sept 2020

As the Red Split Canadian harvest approaches prices have been slowly softening over the past month. Canada is expecting it’s second best yield on record, which is encouraging farmers to sell a bit more now. India has still not yet declared whether they will continue with the reduced import duty, or the rate will return to the normal higher level. We believe India are short of product this year and so we expect the import duty to remain at a lower level. We can see prices start to firm again from October onwards.

Green Lentils pricing seems to be stable currently. Although yields appear to be good in Canada, demand from India is strong seeing around 70,000 tenders coming in for green lentils. Acreage for green lentils was quite a bit smaller in North America compared to red lentils, so pricing going forward is likely to firm.

Much like Green Lentils, Dark Green Speckled Lentils prices remain stable. Again, acreage was smaller in Canada this year, but with above average yields production is not that much smaller. We expect prices to trade within a narrow price range going forward.