Pulses market outlook for January
WE have now entered a new year 2020.
The year has come with a lot of hopes as far as market of pulses is concerned but also with a lot of uncertainty on the same.
Production is a very important factor in determining market position of many agriculture commodities including pulses, so in this analysis we will try to pick some production trends in a bid to blend a perfect picture on what is transpiring in the pulses exchange.
Someone may question justification used behind putting much attention on pulses in this column. Apart from serving as food, Pulses are an alternative cash crop source of income to farmers in the southern Tanzania, Northern and lake zone, among others.
Equally important, pulses are drought resistant crops that has a potential of growing in semi – arid environment. As usual the pulses that will be touched are chickpeas, green grams, pigeon peas and dry beans. The following is the short cast pulses performance in Tanzania;
GREEN GRAMS
It is precise to say that this is Green grams season. In Simiyu and its Lake Zone peripherals, trading of green grams is at its peak, this is because many farmers in that locality are harvesting the crops. The current price in Bariadi is around 1,200/- and an exporting price in Dar es Salaam is currently trading at around 1,400/- per kilo.
From December 2019, the price appeared to be somewhat appreciative. Nonetheless, in the look of production trends, the lucrative price may last for a short-while before it decline because the whole of February will give way for some more farmers to expand their harvesting areas and so flood the markets.
So, harvesting spree that kick-started last week, signals further decline, thanks to increased supply caused by quantitative surge in the market. Season for green grams in the country are two, the other one starts around August/ September, whose harvests largely comes from Northern and Southern part of the country.
DRY BEANS
Alternatively called common beans, are a class of pulses that are highly consumed in the country. The large part of the country is off season, except for few regions like Kagera which is currently harvesting the crops.
The farm gate price for common beans in Kagera is currently around 1,500/- per kilo, which is a way below December 2019’s price that stood at 2000/- a kilo in the same region. Again, harvesting spree is reason behind this price slowdown. Exporters revealed no buying price because of the dictates of the global market highly influenced by Pakistan.
However, this is just a short season that spans up to February and it should not be confused with the main season in August. The major season usually comprise beans from all-over the country; Northern, Southern, Western, Eastern and Central part of the country.
CHICK PEAS
The current export price for chick pea is around 1,300/- per kilo, slightly higher than December 2019’s price of 1,230/- per kilo. The turn of things indicates that scarcity chickpea is a driving force behind this appreciation. The largest producers of chickpea in the country are Manyara, Simiyu and Singida, inter alia.
This year’s exportability of chickpea is still tied in darkness as India, which is the major market for world’s yellow gram’s export, is still holding some quantitative import restrictions on Tanzania’s. If this will be lifted or at least a definitive quota be placed by Indian government, then the crop’s flow will be highly unhinged.
Much attention is given on the export price because local consumption of yellow grams is insignificant, making it to be more of a cash crop than not.
PIGEON PEA
This is yet another major pulses crop grown in the country. Last year’s production stood at around 90,000 tons – the lowest in nearly the decade. But as it is well known, the major shift in the marketability pigeon pea as it befell other pulses, was because of Indian import ban imposed in 2017.
The current buying price by exporters is around 1,000/- a kilo. A bit too low compared to last December’s price that stood at 1,050/-. Actually, there is virtually no exporter that is ready to buy the crop because of the season and restrictions placed by Indian market.
Few countries in Europe, like Netherlands and Belgium, show an interest in buying Tanzanian pigeon pea by starting entering agreements with Tanzanian companies. Some of those European companies have already done business with Tanzania in previous years.
