Crops go to the dogs
Peas and lentils from Canadian farms are increasingly going to the dogs — literally. Canadian pulse growers and processors are turning to the petfood market, to counter swelling global supplies and import tariffs in India, the world’s biggest consumer. Use of the high-protein, gluten-free vegetarian staples is surging in the pet sector as owners increasingly seek grain-free diets for their furry friends.
“It’s really a perception of the owner of pets: ‘If gluten-free is good for me, then gluten-free is good for my pet’,” says David Nobbs, managing partner of Canpulse Foods in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which last year shipped 15,000 tonnes of pulse crops to the US for use in pet food.
The gluten-free trend is spilling over from human food, where more consumers are increasingly choosing foods “free from” everything from gluten to dairy amid a push towards healthier eating.
Pulse crops — including dry peas, lentils and chickpeas — are highprotein legumes that can be consumed whole, ground into flours or separated into protein, fibre and starch to be added into processed foods. Demand for the ingredients from the human food sector is also growing as companies add them to everything from breakfast cereals to snacks.
In a five-year span, the use of pea ingredients in pet food grew by 10 per cent a year and is expected to continue to rise by 5 per cent annually, according to a 2016 Euromonitor study completed for Pulse Canada, an industry group that represents the nation’s growers, traders and processors.
Canada exports about 40,000 tonnes of yellow peas, red lentils and chickpeas to the US to be processed into pet food every year, up from virtually zero a few years ago, Nobbs says.
That amount will continue to climb as the lower price of pulse crops makes them more attractive to food companies to include in products, and consumer preference for grain-free items grows, he says.
The sector is a bright spot in a global market that has been hit by sagging prices. While pulse crops enjoyed the highest prices ever as recently as 2016, farmers have since expanded production, creating a glut. In Canada, the area devoted to lentils more than doubled in the past decade while pea plantings have risen 8 per cent in the past five years, government data show.
India’s imposition of steep import tariffs on the legumes has made the situation worse, virtually halting exports from Canada, the top exporter.
Red-lentil prices in Saskatchewan have plunged 68 per cent since January 2016, while yellow-pea prices have tumbled 41 per cent, according to data from grain marketing firm Farmco.
But people are increasingly seeking out foods from local farmers and growers, and “we see similar patterns when it comes to feeding our cats and dogs,” says Frank Burdzy, president and chief executive of Champion Petfoods, which sells the Acana and Orijen brands.
While the bulk of the company’s foods are still made from meat, some of its dog products contain pulses, including whole red lentils and chickpeas.
“The humanisation of pets is really a trend,” says Murad Al-Katib, chief executive of Saskatchewan-based AGT Food and Ingredients, one of the world’s biggest exporters of pulses. “You’re seeing the development of the pet-food industry going from just home-fed scraps to more planned meals in stages of pets’ lives.”
—
It’s really a perception of the owner of pets: ‘If gluten-free is good for me, then gluten-free is good for my pet’. David Nobbs, Canpulse Foods