Turkey drops lentil duty; market unlikely to react

A major importer of Canadian lentils has temporarily dropped its duty on the crop, but that probably won’t have a big impact on already sky-high Canadian prices, say industry officials. Turkey has announced it is dropping its 19.3 percent import duty on green lentils through June 30 and is also prohibiting export of the commodity. “Right now, I don’t think it means much,” said David Nyznyk, a broker with Agri-Food Central Ltd. in Winnipeg. The Canadian supply of large green lentils is “running on fumes,” which has pushed prices 55 percent higher than they were last year at this time. He doubts much additional old crop business is going to occur with Turkey. “With (Turkish) interest rates being at 46 percent, they’re going to question the logic of buying at all-time high prices for Canadian green lentils,” said Nyznyk. “They’re going to want to keep their cash available to buy the local production.” That production will start to materialize at the beginning of July, which is likely ...