Global: Slow demand squeezes pinto and black bean prices

The price outlook for pinto and black beans is about to improve, while prices for many other classes are already on the rise, according to two traders of the crop. Pinto and black bean prices have been on a downward slide since spring. “We’re reaching the bottom, so the downside risk seems to be pretty limited,” Sam Peck, a trader with Jack’s Bean International, said during a recent Global Pulse Confederation (GPC) webinar. Orion Roy-Wright, a trader with Archer Daniels Midland, agrees with that assessment. He is forecasting stable to higher prices for those two classes of beans. Farmers in Canada and the United States overproduced blacks and pintos in response to overwhelming demand from Mexico last year as it came to grips with a devastating drought. Roy-Wright estimates U.S. pinto and black bean production was up 35 to 40 per cent this year, while navy bean production fell 20 per cent. David Larios, a trader with Aliansa, estimates that Mexico’s imports of U.S. black and pinto ...