06/27/06 Pulse crop exports up this year

One of the major export success stories this year have been pulse crops. US Department of Agriculture economist Gary Lucier says export volume of dry peas and lentils is up 117 percent. LUCIER "We're in the in-between time. We have too much for just food use and we have not enough for feed mills to change rations so in the meantime what we have to do is we have to find other markets, alternative markets and on these crops these markets are outside the United States." On the dry edible bean export side the numbers for the first eight months of this crop year are also impressive. LUCIER "US export volume was up about 65 percent and we hit about 5.3 million hundredweight and even though we still have four months to go in the crop year volume is already above what we saw in the previous year." So what's driving the export demand? LUCIER "Lower prices and better demand in places like Mexico and other nations. It's a welcome change for the industry because over the last four years we've seen nothing but declines." There's also been more dry bean use in food aid programs." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott