Pulse farmers hope for India solution by June
OTTAWA Canadian pulse farmers are pondering if it is even worth planting peas and lentils this spring, as steep tariffs from their No. 1 customer cut deep into their profit margins.
However Gordon Bacon, CEO of Pulse Canada, hopes that if Canada can persuade India to stop requiring Canadian producers to douse their pulses in pesticides that are unnecessary on Canadian crops, it may improve the economics of the exports, even if the tariffs aren’t lifted.
Import tariffs of 50 per cent on yellow peas and 33 per cent on lentils had an immediate effect on Canadian exports to India, which fell 92 per cent in the last two months of 2017, compared with the same time period a year earlier. India is the biggest foreign buyer of Canadian peas and lentils.
The drop has left many farmers with excess stock from last year they haven’t already sold and makes it increasingly less attractive to plant more peas and lentils this year, said Bacon.
Bacon doesn’t expect Canada to be exempted from the tariffs, but he says Canada needs to ensure India provides predictability and transparency in its decisions. He was also buoyed when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised the pesticide issue directly with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last month.
Bacon says though the pesticide rule has been in place since 2003, and has been brought up at the diplomatic and ministerial level before, this was the first time it was raised at the highest level of the Indian government.
“It was important that this was addressed by the prime ministers,” said Bacon. “Because of the political importance of pulses in India, it was recognized this would need to go to the highest political office.”