Western Australia’s burgeoning field pea industry is looking to India as a key market to absorb the increasing production of Kaspa dun field peas.

Department of Agriculture, Western Australia pulse extension officer Ian Pritchard said the rapid rise of field pea production in Western Australia was unlikely to cause an oversupply or impact on prices.

Mr Pritchard said the Department’s analysis of field pea markets showed the extra production of about 150,000 tonnes by 2007 could easily be absorbed by the market, with good prospects in India.

“The Department of Agriculture and Pulse WA recently promoted Kaspa to the Indian pulse trading community at the National Pulses Conference in New Delhi,” Mr Pritchard said.

“Samples of WA-grown Kaspa and information booklets were provided to more than 550 conference delegates including traders, brokers, processors, researchers, inspection and certification agencies, farmers and Government officials.”

Mr Pritchard said more than 70 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion population was vegetarian and pulses were a major commodity.  India currently imports about 2 million tonnes of field peas and this was expected to increase as demand further outstripped India’s production capability.

He said greater production of Kaspa duns represented good opportunities for WA field peas to displace other exporters of field peas in the Indian market.

“Through the WA trade office display at New Delhi, we received excellent feedback on Kaspa,” Mr Pritchard said.

“The preliminary reaction was that Kaspa dun pea had better colour, uniform size, quicker cooking times requiring less energy and higher split yields than the conventional Australian dun peas.

“Existing dun importers have generally welcomed the new Kaspa dun pea, and one Government-owned trader has already expressed interest in bulk imports of Kaspa once exports became available for stock and sale. 

Mr Pritchard said Canada was the largest producer of field peas and their production, together with demand in India, generally set the price.

He said Canada’s production could vary each year by up to 1.1 million tonnes. Western Australia’s additional production of 150,000 tonnes was not expected to impact on price given the large production variations that already occurred.