Markets Limited by Processing Capacity

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Markets were closed yesterday, so bringing you the final installment in a series of reports about the outlook for commodities that end up in plant-based meats. Namely, we are looking at the market for yellow peas that are processed into pea protein isolate for food like the Beyond Meat burger.

The demand for these plant-based meats has not yet lead to stronger markets for farmers. Some of that is due to the reliance on China to process the crop.

Chuck Penner of LeftField Commodity Research says there are efforts being made to expand North American processing capacity, but we still have a long way to go.

Penner…”The farmers are asking about it. They're wondering about when will these plants come on stream. For the most part, there are some. There's one small one in Saskatchewan that's actually owned by David Cameron of Titanic fame. The other larger ones are still a little ways off, and so companies will start contracting for the 2020 pea crop.

The number of tons, for example, we're forecasting for next year, that we may have 4 million tons of peas grown in Western Canada. The larger plant is looking at taking give or take about 200,000 tons. So in the scale of things, still relatively minor. So it's going to take some time before they make a noticeable dent.”

If you’d like additional market information on peas and other specialty crops, you can visit Chuck’s website at www.LeftFieldCR.com.