Canada: Red lentil prices expected to rise

Old crop red lentil prices have bottomed out and should be heading higher as new crop seeding approaches, says a trader. “We’re at the lower end of the old crop prices,” Will Watchorn, a trader with Viterra, said during the red lentil panel at the Global Pulse Confederation’s Pulses 2024 conference. Canada is going to have tight stocks of the crop and so will Australia, which recently shipped out a record 250,000 tonnes of red lentils in December. Red lentils are selling for about US$700 per tonne cost and freight (CNF) in India, which is the price-setter for the crop. He thinks the price will rise toward the Indian government’s minimum support price of $780 per tonne as seeding of Canada’s new crop begins. The other panelists thought old crop prices will remain in the range of $680 to $750 per tonne. None of the panelists were brave enough to offer up a new crop price forecast with the exception of Gaurav Jain, analyst with AgPulse Analytica. He thinks growers might be in store ...