American producers grow fewer beans

Bean production in the United States is down 13 percent compared to last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pinto bean production is 401,370 tonnes, an 18 percent drop from last year.

Black bean production is forecast flat at 272,713 tonnes.

North Dakota experienced the sharpest contraction in production. Its crop of 365,508 tonnes was slightly more than 100,000 tonnes smaller than last year.

Dennis Lange, special crops specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, said that is the state to watch for market signals because they grow the same types of beans as Western Canada.

“It’s hard to say where price is going to be at, but if you generally see less production, that is maybe a positive, I guess, for the market,” he said.

He has seen fields that yielded 3,000 pounds per acre and ones where it was a dismal 1,200 lb.

Growers in Manitoba planted 144,000 acres of the crop, up from 115,000 last year. Farmers shied away from beans and soybeans last year, opting for canola instead because of the delayed planting season.

Lange was surprised to see an increase in both pinto and black bean production in Manitoba.

Canada’s nationwide bean production is pegged at 277,000 tonnes, a 12 percent drop from last year. Carry-in from the previous year is estimated at 80,000 tonnes, so supplies are tight.

Lange said it is too early to get a firm grasp on where bean markets are heading. Prices are often flat this close to harvest, but they can “change dramatically” once the trade gets a better grasp on North American supply and demand.

Brazil is forecasting a 3.5 percent increase in seeded acreage to 6.88 million acres in 2024, according to Stat.

Ending stocks are expected to rise to 487,300 tonnes, a 45 percent increase. Stat expects that to pressure domestic prices.

Argentina’s bean production was down 19 percent in 2023 because of record drought.

The country’s white alubia crop fell 32 percent to 145,000 tonnes, while black bean output dropped 16 percent to 153,000 tonnes.

“What saved us last year was that we had carry-in, but this year we have zero carry-in,” Nico Karnaubi, vice-president of the Chamber of Pulses of Argentina, said in a recent article published by the Global Pulses Confederation (GPC).

Exports of both types of beans will be severely reduced.

Argentina’s poor black bean harvest will be partially offset by a big crop in Brazil.

Farmers in Argentina managed to increase cranberry bean production by 36 percent to 54,110 tonnes and light red kidney production by 18 percent to 21,370 tonnes, according to GPC.

Growers switched over to those types of beans when white alubia area was lost early due to drought. The lost acres were replanted to cranberry and light red kidney beans because they take about 30 fewer days to grow.

Tags: Production, acreage, yield, Argentina, beans, pinto bean, black bean, Brazil, United States, ending stocks