April 2025 This Pulse Market Update is available to listen to in this episode of Inside the Pod, the PGRO podcast. Commentary Despite what seems like a relentless attempt by politicians to ‘manage’ the markets and economies in new ways, the business of making money continues in the seemingly more mundane but ultimately vital commodity markets of…

Commentary Unlike world politics the UK’s pulse markets have continued to be quiet since the turn of the year.While what are likely to be the last of the human consumption bean export vessels from crop 2024 depart these shores, overall export demand has been much lower since the last harvest.As it is really still breaking…

Commentary The markets have been quite quiet in recent weeks, with routine but relatively low levels of activity. There are however some interesting factors governing the overall calm. Presenting an “extended window of opportunity” for UK exporters, especially for containerised produce, Baltic region bean crops have continued to be very variable, with quality lower than…

Commentary As we release this issue the crop areas for 2024 have been released from DEFRA. The trade has long suspected that there would be a fall in bean crop area initiated by the poor winter and spring drilling opportunities at the turn of the year, but the dramatic drop in bean area suggested will…

Commentary Since the beginning of the year the trade has struggled to get a grip of the likely supply and demand post-harvest 2024. The crop area remains unknown, with many having earlier estimated a fall of 20- 25% and it is still hard to get a clear picture about the national yields. What is increasingly…

Commentary Early estimations of 2024 crop were quickly realised to be on the high side by the time the Spring period arrived and pulse crop prices spiked as short sellers rushed to cover their positions. This forced those with options for the use of alternative protein sources to question the place of UK production in…

Commentary It seems that the 2023 trade estimates regarding crop availability were a little on the high side. Since the turn of the year pulse trade continued at a lower level than anticipated. Demand from core users has remained strong but supply has been somewhat harder to secure. Initially considered as reluctance of growers to…

Commentary Since the start of the new year, trade has continued at a lower level than that experienced before Christmas.There is still demand for pulses in the domestic markets which sellers continue to meet. Trade however is steady rather than exciting at present.Given the generally falling values for other crop commodities, pulses have held their…

Commentary During the run up to Christmas, trading of pulse crops has slowed remarkably, with few samples arriving with traders in recent days.Until now, market values have held up well and demand for UK-produced pulses remains strong.Opportunities in the export bean markets have been somewhat restrained by a combination of factors. There was early interest…

The DEFRA figures for the crop area in England have been released and there is a degree of uncertainty as to whether there was an increase in 2023 or not.   The actual figures show a small increase of 1.2% for beans and 6.5% for peas but given that there is a significant confidence interval…

With the start of the new crop pea harvest only three weeks or so away for the earliest southern growers, interest in old crop trading has started to wane. Crops in general are said to look good, with the general impression that baring any dramatic turn in weather conditions pulse harvest 2023 could be above…

The Pulse trade since the start of the year has been relatively stable, opportunities were limited and following wheat futures, feed prices fell. Demand for pulses has however picked up a little in recent weeks and prices have stabilised over the last month. It is well known that values for agricultural commodities worldwide, take no…