Russia is top yellow peas exporter to India

Canada lags behind. Aggressive sales and trading in Indian rupees have helped Moscow overtake Ottawa

Vishwanath Kulkarni

Subramani Ra Mancombu

Russia has become the largest exporter of yellow peas to India pipping Canada, which was dominating the market so far, data from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) show. The development comes after Russia topped Canada in the Chinese market, where at one point in time Ottawa had over 97 per cent market share, data show.

Moscow shipped 4.41 lakh tonnes (lt) of peas to India during the April-July period of the 2024-25 fiscal. This is higher than the 4.01 lt it shipped during the entire 2023-24 fiscal.

Canada exported 3.93 lt of yellow peas to India during the April-July period of the current fiscal. It had shipped 1.38 million tonnes during the 2023-24 fiscal.

“Russia is aggressively exporting yellow peas in the global market. It offers peas at a competitive price and allows trade in Indian rupees. Logistically, too, it is cheaper,” said a New Delhi-based trade expert.

India spent $212.85 million for the 4.41 lt of peas it imported while for Canadian peas the expenditure was $228.49 million. Currently, Russia is shipping yellow peas to India at $425 a tonne cost and freight for October-November delivery while Canada is charging $460 for the same period.

“Over the last two years, Russia’s production and export of yellow peas has increased to record levels. Imports were less as China was not importing from Russia,” said Rahul Chauhan of Igrain.

Dynamics decide

Bimal Kothari, Chairman, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the apex trade body, said market dynamics decide imports, whether it is from Russia or Canada. “It all depends on the price. Russia is also very competitive but cargo is coming from both the countries,” he said.

In fact, for October, a lot of shipments have been committed. There are a number of vessels coming from Canada also. “Whoever is giving a competitive price, people import from them,” Kothari said.

Russian news agency Interfax said last week that Moscow had obtained the right to supply lentils to India regularly. It quoted the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) saying it had received a notification from India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The news agency said Russian supplies of leguminous crops to India had increased 23-fold year-on-year to 5,45,000 tonnes between January and September 22, 2024.

Duty-free import

B Krishnamurthy, Managing Director, Four P International, said imports gathered momentum after the Centre reduced the duty on peas to zero from 35 per cent for three months at the beginning of the year.“Subsequent extensions of the zero duty facility have resulted in prices dropping. Currently, zero duty imports are available till December 31,” he said.

Asked if freight is less for importing from Russia due to the its proximity compared with Canada, Kothari said there is no such advantage. He said he expects the import of yellow peas to be in the range of 3.3-3.5 million tonnes by the end of 2024.