The world's pulse trade runs largely through one buyer, and that buyer is pulling back. India, the largest producer and importer of lentils and peas, is tightening its border after a strong domestic harvest, and the effects are rippling through farms from Canada to Australia. Global pulses trade eased to an estimated 21.0 million tonnes in 2025, down 6 per cent year on year, as weaker Indian buying of dry peas and lentils offset firm demand elsewhere, though the International Grains Council expects flows to rebound modestly in 2026, according to Miller Magazine.
Duties Up, Imports Down
India imposed a 30 per cent import tariff on peas of all origins from November 1, 2025, and the effect was immediate. Its pea imports reached 1.14 million tonnes from all origins in the first 11 months of 2025, against 2.74 million in the same period of 2024, according to The Western Producer, citing market analyst Brian Clancey. Analysts expect lentils to follow, with the existing 10 per cent duty forecast to rise to 30 per cent, and Indian lentil imports projected at one million tonnes in 2026-27, down from 1.25 million this crop year and 1.68 million in 2023-24, according to The Western Producer, citing analyst Gaurav Jain of AgPulse Analytica.
Growers Read the Signal
The home crop is the reason. Indian farmers were expected to produce 1.78 million tonnes of lentils, above the five-year average of 1.51 million, the same report noted, and India accounts for well over half of global chickpea output, so the size and timing of its harvest strongly shapes how much imported material the rest of the world competes for, according to Tradelink International. Exporters are already adjusting, with Canadian growers forecast to plant 2.96 million acres of peas in 2026, a 15 per cent drop, and 3.95 million acres of lentils, down 9.7 per cent, The Western Producer reported.
Pulses are protein for households that cannot always afford meat, in Lagos as much as in Delhi, and displaced export volumes have to find a home somewhere. FoodPrices Nigeria tracks verified bean prices across Lagos markets, where shifts in the global legume trade eventually surface.