Officials push pulses in Europe

EAGLE STAFF

Europeans could soon be eating more Canadian pulses, officials here believe.

They’re working to expand pulse exports, especially lentils, to the European Union and United Kingdom while trying to overcome “regulatory and policy barriers that continue to impede market access,” said an item on the Pulse Canada website in late June.

The European Commission this year issued a new vision for agriculture, stressing improving the “competitiveness and resilience of EU agriculture,” the item says. “The vision marks a shift from the 2020 Farm to Fork strategy and its prescriptive targets” but “maintains barriers” against using “crop-protection products and has (the) potential to introduce additional trade-related risks, including the use of reciprocal measures,” it says.

“While these developments add complexity, they also open the door to opportunity,” the article continues. “The proposal to develop an EU protein strategy could present opportunities for Canadian pulses to play a greater role in Europe’s food system.”

Studies indicate “strong consumer interest in lentils across the region,” it says. A study commissioned by Pulse Canada in 2024 “found that 30 per cent of consumers in the UK and Germany eat lentils weekly and over half view them as healthy and nutritious,” it says. “Lentils are showing up in an expanding range of products - snacks, baked goods, plant-based burgers and more.”

According to the London-based market research firm Mintel, 65 per cent of lentil product launches around the world happened in Europe, especially in the UK, France and Germany.

Pulse Canada officials campaigned on behalf of Canadian pulses in Europe during the spring, aiming to improve commercial interest, understand the implications of the new policy and advocate for “trade-facilitative approaches” against measures that prevent export growth, the item says. They met with representatives of governments, food companies, trade personnel, parliamentarians and officials with the European Commission’s health, trade and agriculture departments.

At Brussels in April, leaders with Pulse Canada, Cereals Canada and the Canola Council of Canada raised concerns about reciprocal trade measures and distributed information about Canada’s contributions to Europe's food and nutrition security, the item says.

“The mission included a high-level luncheon” where a member of the Canada’s embassy to the EU spoke and highlighted the importance of the Canadian-European trade relationship and opportunities to strengthen it, the article says.

In meetings with officials from European food companies and retailers, Canadian leaders outlined “the value of Canadian lentils and lentil ingredients across a broad range of food product categories, in particular for ready-to-eat and snack and meat applications,” it says.

They also reviewed “recent life-cycle assessment data showing that Canadian lentils maintain a low carbon footprint even after accounting for transportation to Europe, This data is a critical component for illustrating the advanced growing practices in Canada.”

The team also presented that data during the Bridge2Food conference on June 9-11 in Copenhagen.

A presentation there by Denis Trémorin, Pulse Canada’s sustainability director, focused on regenerative agriculture, emphasizing how Canadian farmers use no-till and diversified crop rotations. Other speakers during that particular session covered legume concentrates and legume bio-refineries.

Pulse Canada personnel also took part in a tour, organized by federal Agriculture Department staff, “for key EU government and industry stakeholders.” The tour involved meetings with department researchers, a visit to an Alberta farm and a sustainable agriculture conference in Ottawa.

They visited a pulse and grain farm with Kevin Auch of Carmangay, Alta., who previously chaired Pulse Canada, and saw irrigated and dryland farming, “learned about prairie crop rotations and saw first-hand the role of no-till practices and precision nutrient management for soil health and emissions reduction,” the article says.