WINNIPEG, Manitoba — A year after record deluges damaged the lentil crops in Canada, vegetarians across India are getting sticker shock for legumes they eat at almost every meal.

Stockpiles in Canada, the world’s biggest exporter, are down by half from a year earlier, government data show. At the same time, shipments to India, the top buyer, are headed to an all-time high after a dry spell reduced its domestic output. That’s boosted prices for all kinds of similar crops, including chickpeas and dried beans.

“We’re going to be sold out this year,” with supply remaining tight at least until the Canadian harvest starts in August, said Murad Al-Katib, chief executive officer of Saskatchewan-based AGT Food & Ingredients Inc., the largest processor and exporter of dried peas and lentils.

Demand is growing for the high-protein legumes known as pulses. General Mills and Kraft Foods Group are adding them to cereals, energy bars and salty snacks as health-conscious consumers seek products with no gluten or genetically modified ingredients. AGT is expanding operations as sales surge 40 percent this year.

Record rainfall last year in Saskatchewan, which produces almost all of the country’s lentils, reduced quality supplies by more than 15 percent. Output of all pulse crops fell 10 percent.

“It was a difficult growing season,” said Morgan Nunweiler, who produced 20 percent fewer lentils last year on 2,000 acres he farms in Rosetown, Saskatchewan. “Excess moisture led to higher disease.”

On March 31, domestic lentil stockpiles were 434,000 metric tons, down 54 percent from a year earlier, and dry field peas fell 34 percent to an seven-year low of 1 million tons, Statistics Canada said in a May 6 report. Lentil exports will reach a record 1.8 million tons by the end of July, and dry-pea shipments remain on a record pace, the government data show.

Farmers are getting as much as 40 Canadian cents (32 U.S. cents) a pound for certain varieties of lentils, almost twice as much as a year ago, said Nunweiler, a director at the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers.


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