Organic Bean / Legume Projections and Crop Information for 2021

The adaptation of healthy and sustainable diets since the global pandemic has been rising over the months. Consumers are continuously considering affordable, nutritious, and plant-based products to include in their diets. Legumes, like lentils and beans, are now presently following the growing number of other nutritional crop alternatives. Aside from its rich nutritional value, there is now an increase in demand for legumes by the food processing and baking industry, which has increased the CAGR for the coming years. The United States reached a crop value of USD 658.32 M during its 2020 report, which is now expected to rise at a CAGR of 7.93%, reaching approximately USD 1.1 B by 2027. Globally, considering the forecast period of 2021-2027, the beans market is valued at USD 20,120 M with 114.49 M tons by the end of 2026 with a 2.8% CAGR.

Crop Information

Growing legumes further increases the benefits of traditional agriculture. In some parts of the European countries, the agriculture sector started to focus on traditional crop rotations like growing legumes alongside wheat, barley, or rapeseed to boost the environmental benefits and crop’s nutritional value for both humans and livestock. In the US, conventional tillage of legumes is commonly practiced (71.4%). Other farming approaches like minimum-tillage (20%), strip-tillage (6.2%), and no-till (2.4%) are also being observed.

Legumes are known to be the only crops that can provide themselves enough nitrogen by just drawing the air around them. By doing so, legumes are branded as one of the less inexpensive crops that have rich nutrient value, including fiber, protein, iron, magnesium, folate, potassium, thiamine, and other vitamins. With their longer shelf life, beans/legumes are the best alternatives to aid in lowering blood cholesterol levels, restrains the increase of blood glucose levels, and is responsible for saturation.

Exporter and Importer Information

The production of organic beans depends on the region’s adaptability, dietary patterns, prevailing conditions, and levels of market demands. Among the growers in over 173 countries worldwide, India tops the highest producer of organic beans, followed by Myanmar, Brazil, the United States, China, Mexico, Russia, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya.

In the United States, a survey shows that most grown beans are kidney, pinto, navy, and black beans. North Dakota and Minnesota are two of the major growers of dry beans accounting for nearly one-half of the US planted crops area, in which the former is best known in the production of pinto beans, while the latter, in kidney beans. Navy and black beans are equally produced by both states. At present, roughly 23% of dry beans have already been seeded in the United States.

The rise in demand for export bean products from the United States is due to the lack of black bean produce in both Argentina and China. The latter’s production has been decreasing over the last five years due to the government’s additional support and focus on corn and soybean productions. Argentina, on the other hand, had a depletion of its export supplies and is expected to furnish new stocks after the country harvests its stocks in June. Therefore, the United States, along with Canada, continues to supply markets like Costa Rica, Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, and Guatemala for a few more months until other exporters replenish their stocks.

Mexico is the primary importer of dry beans from the US, where black beans are the main demand for Mexican consumers. Although Mexico is on the top ten list of bean producers, the country cultivated poor crops, which is attributed to drought and frost damage. The demand resulted in increased black bean acres production, mostly in North Dakota.

The opportunity of import markets in Europe is most likely higher than the export market as the country’s consumption is relatively low. Europe produces fewer bean products, though the country is known for its field peas and fava beans. Developing countries share a trade value of 51% in beans alone. The nearby countries have an additional benefit of exporting bean produce to Europe due to its logistics and geographical location. The countries include Argentina, Ethiopia, China, Mexico, Myanmar, Turkey, Kenya, Canada, United States, Ukraine, and Egypt. Among the European districts, Italy is the leading importer of bean products due to the demands in the food industry, especially in preparing the country’s traditional cuisines.

Projections

India is the largest producer, consumer, and importer of beans globally with 25% production, 27%, and 14%, respectively. The country is now eyeing to target 50% to 24 M tons of beans by the end of 2021. According to its Agriculture Minister, to achieve this, the country’s agriculture will be using hybrid and high-yielding seed varieties. Earlier this month, the Indian government plans to distribute over 2 million mini-kits of bean seeds by mid of June to expand the production and productivity of beans for the 2021-22 crop year. During the National Conference on Pulses campaign 2021, the agriculture sector proposes and aims 25 MMT of beans for 2021-22.

US agriculture is expected to plant 1.54 million acres of organic beans by the end of 2021. Although this figure is lower than the planted acres in 2020 (1.74 million acres), the industry still keeps its perspective positive. The US production is expected by the USDA to increase at 1.5 M tons, an approximately 60 percent higher from 2020. Canada’s export forecast, on the other hand, still maintains the US and EU to be the main markets of organic beans, with a few export volumes in Angola, Japan, Bangladesh, and Mexico. Its prices, however, remain relatively strong considering the increase in production worldwide.

Although the global demand for bean products is slowly increasing, the acreage for 2021 among the leading exporters decreased by 5% or 3.36 million acres. This is due to the carryover of large crops last year, along with the product returns caused by the higher competing crops like wheat, soybeans, and corn.