Glacier FarmMedia MarketsFarm – Total pulse production in China has been projected to increase slightly to 983,000 tonnes in 2024/25 compared to the 959,000 tonnes harvested the year before, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s attaché in Beijing.
In general, pulse output in China has been falling back as, “government programs incentivizing the production of higher value feed grain crops and changing eating habits of Chinese consumers from staple foods to a more diverse diet,” noted the attaché’s report. That’s seen farmers switching from pulses to vegetables and fruits.
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Production increases, decreases
However, the Beijing desk said the largest projected production increase for 2024/25 would be for kidney beans, with China going from 112,000 tonnes the year before to a harvest of 151,000. There were other smaller increases, such as lentils rising from 15,000 tonnes to 20,000 and chickpeas to rise from 10,000 tonnes to 12,000.
The attaché forecast declines in some of China’s pulse crops, with dry peas slipping from 55,000 tonnes in 2023/24 to 50,000 this year. Mung beans are to retreat from 160,000 tonnes to 150,000, fava beans down from 255,000 tonnes to 250,000, and adzuki beans are to dip from 352,000 tonnes to 350,000.
China’s pulse imports
As for imports, the Beijing desk said China is set to acquire less pulses in 2024/25, dropping from 2.89 million tonnes last year to just short of 2.20 million. That’s largely due to a sizeable decline in dry imports, from nearly 2.20 million in 2023/24 to 1.50 million this marketing year. Meanwhile the most notable increase came in mung beans, with imports climbing from 572,000 tonnes to the attaché’s estimate of 590,000.
Ending stocks
Aside from dry peas, China doesn’t have much in the way of ending stocks for pulses. The Beijing desk called for peas to fall from 434,000 tonnes down to 300,000 tonnes, with the only other projected ending stocks being two thousand tonnes of kidney beans. Lentils, chickpeas, mung beans, fava beans and adzuki beans are projected to retreat from a combined 18,000 tonnes last year to zero this year.
