Dip in pulses

While imports continue to rise to new heights, the nearly half a billion dip in pulses’ imports provided some slight relief. Though Pakistan grows a variety of pulses, including gram, lentil, moong bean, mash, red gram, and cowpea, production is not enough to satisfy domestic demand. Therefore, pulses have been a staple in the food imports list, averaging at about $300 million per year for the last decade.

However last year, pulses’ imports peaked at its highest level ever, becoming the top food import after palm oil. This year, imports are down by nearly 50 percent YoY for 11MFY18, going from over $800 million last year to about $400 million, as per SBP data.

Bumper production in the pulses global market led to prices falling by nearly 50 percent for different members of the legume family last year. Since pulses are a stable in many households across the country, lower prices gave traders incentive to shore up on supplies and resulted in a sharp increase in imports in FY17.
However, this created a glut in the market with wholesale prices coming down significantly. Those hit hardest by the glut are wholesalers whose prices have dropped. Pulses are considered a poor man’s meat since they contain protein associated with meat and dairy products so the oversupply in the market should have positively affected them.

However, since consumers seem not to be benefited by significantly lower prices, the retailers appear to be the real winners here. While retail prices remain relatively constant, price for some pulses such as gram, lentil, and mash have seen nearly 20-30 percent dip at the wholesale level. Given market conditions, traders have slowed down their import of pulses from September FY18 onwards.
A report by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN issued earlier this year postulates a theory. It suggest that as countries become richer, people shift from consuming vegetable proteins found in pulses and beans to more expensive animal source proteins, such as dairy products and meat. Pakistan used to consume nearly 15kg of pulses per year in the 1960s and this has declined down to about 7kg per year.

Even if pulse consumption has seen a declining trend, with the current population and consumption rate it still equals millions of tons. Since cultivated crop area is roughly 5 percent for pulses, its import is likely to continue to be a staple.