World and regional trade: Quantity versus quality

Since IFLRC1 was held in Spokane in 1986 aggregate world production of pulses has changed only marginally, rising by 7 per cent. However, there have been significant shifts between winter and summer pulses and between varieties over this time. The proportion of the summer pulses produced has increased with total dry bean production increasing by 29 per cent to 18.6 million tonnes, due mainly to increases in India, Brazil, Myanmar, Mexico and China. Production of the main winter pulse, dry peas, has fallen over the period by 4 million tonnes due mainly to reduced production in Russia and China. This is despite pea production almost doubling in Europe to 6.4 million tonnes. Production of chickpeas has increased by 2 million tonnes, due mainly to Indian growers responding to relatively profitable prices and increasing production and improvements in Iran and Australia. Of note is the relatively poor performance of Turkey, a major exporter of chickpeas and lentils, where production has been either static in the case of chickpeas and falling in the case of lentils. Trade in pulses increased by around 70 per cent in the period 1987 to 1996 with the two major increases being in dry peas, up 2 million tonnes to 3.7 million tonnes, mainly for use in stockfeed and dry beans, up 600 kt, mainly to South America. The proportion of bulk shipments of average quality increased relative to container loads. Trade in other cool season food legumes was characterised by volatility but no substantial increase was registered for any of the other key food legumes. The two biggest challenges facing pulse growers world wide is quality assurance and food safety. Systems are being designed in Australia to meet customer driven specifications in order to build greater credibility with customers. They are designed to underpin the present system of QA grain in bulk handling facilities and at port terminals. The Australian system developed by Pulse Australia has its own HAACP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) based quality system, which addresses food safety and product quality issues. The feature of the system is that it has created a world first by integrating quality parameters into the whole farm system based on best management practices. The ultimate goal as the system develops is to provide QA for cooking time, taste and flavour.