Pulse prices up nearly 25% on previous year

The 2021-’22 season has started off with clearly higher prices for feed peas, field beans and soybeans grown in Germany. Field crops are yielding significantly higher prices than the previous year as the season starts. This also applies to pulses for grain use. Support also is coming from the global market, where prospects are bullish.

Although global supply of pulses is expected to be more abundant than the previous season, there is plenty of scope for speculation as long as the soybean crop has not been harvested in the U.S., the top exporter of soybeans. Uncertainty is also fueled by the difficulty in estimating demand from the world’s largest consumer, China. This environment determines prices also in Germany.

The German total area sown with feed peas, field beans and soybeans has been expanded 14 percent compared to the previous year. Whether the expansion will lead to a rise in output in 2021 remains to be seen, because yields will not come close to the previous year’s level due to poor weather conditions.

Nevertheless, producer prices of soybeans showed the typical harvest-related decline. However, the dip started from a significantly higher price level this year. According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), the 2021-’22 crop year kicked off with July producer prices around 24 percent higher than a year earlier. Field beans showed the smallest rise at 10 percent and soybeans the largest increase at 44 percent. Feed peas were in between at 16 percent. However, pricing was not finished yet, nor was harvesting.

According to the Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e.V. (UFOP), the rise in the food industry’s demand for domestic feedstock for vegetarian and vegan food production—especially peas and lupins—accounts for the price increases in grain legumes. There is reason to assume that this trend will continue in the next few years.