Canada: Black and pinto bean acres to decline

North American farmers intend to plant fewer beans, but the devil is in the details.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates U.S. growers will plant 1.47 million acres of the crop in 2025, down four per cent from the previous year.

The agency did not break down acreage by class, but analysts and industry officials have some thoughts on where the slashing will occur.

“I would say that is predominantly going to be in black beans and pinto beans, which is of course the largest classes that we grow in the United States,” said Charles Wachsmuth, vice-president of sales & marketing with Chippewa Valley Bean.

“Every Indication that I’m hearing along the way is we’ll actually see all other classes up 10 to maybe 30 per cent.”

That appears to be in lockstep with the thoughts of Stat Publishing editor Brian Clancey.

He is forecasting a 12.5 per cent drop in U.S. pinto bean plantings to 638,700 acres and an 11 per cent decline in blacks to 382,000 acres.

Navy bean plantings are expected to climb 34 per cent to 167,900 acres, while kidneys will jump 42 per cent to 80,300 acres.

Wachsmuth said the explanation for that class disparity is straightforward — it all comes down to available supplies.

“You can’t really buy navies or kidneys anywhere, but I can find blacks and pintos,” he said.

Statistics Canada is forecasting that Canadian farmers will shrink bean acreage by 11 per cent to 357,000 acres.

Stat Publishing thinks white bean plantings could increase to 63,200 acres from 60,100, while coloured beans could sink to 294,000 acres from 342,200 acres.

Statistics Canada will release its preliminary breakdown of area by class in its June 27th seeded area report.

Dennis Lange, provincial pulse specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, does not think bean acres are going to drop in his province.

“It’s still a little up in the air yet, but I’m kind of thinking we should be similar to last year,” he said.

Manitoba Agriculture hosts a bean meeting each winter and this year’s meeting was well attended with about 120 farmers showing up.

“I always use it as a bit of a gauge to (judge) the interest in dry beans,” said Lange.

The meeting was a full house, which tells him there is definitely an interest in planting beans again this year.

However, he noted that Manitoba farmers probably won’t start turning sod until the end of April, so a lot can change between now and then.

It appears to be a “relatively normal” spring. The snow has mostly melted in the southern part of the province but is hanging around in the west.

Lange said there is still plenty of uncertainty surrounding the bean market and just about every other crop for that matter.

“There’s not a lot of contracting happening right now because of that uncertainty,” he said.

Wachsmuth believes off-the-combine demand for U.S. beans is going to be good this year.

“For most classes we’re going to see strong demand regardless of tariffs from October through December because the pipeline for so many of these classes is completely empty,” he said.

However, there could be increased competition from Brazil. The country used to be a net importer of black beans, but now it is producing three crops a year.

Tags: planting, United States, Canada, crop, beans, pinto beans, black beans