Huge potential market for protein crops, says NFU

There is huge market potential for peas, beans and other grain legumes despite difficulties in increasing output, the NFU will tell a one-day seminar on EU protein crops today.

The NFU has been gathering evidence from the arable sector in the UK and found much of the difficulty for farmers in producing more lies in the lack of profitability for these crops, where the risk of poor performance is too great and the relative returns make the crop uncompetitive against alternative breaks from winter wheat. Using basic information to compare gross margins, the NFU has found the returns available are on average currently around 150/ha behind the next best crop, even after the small protein crop premium is accounted for.

The UK is the largest free market grower of protein crops in the EU, but like other member states we still import millions of tonnes of vegetable protein despite increasing volumes of co-products from wheat and oilseed processing, said Mark Leggott, vice chairman of the NFU combinable crops board, speaking at COPA-COGECA’s one-day seminar on EU protein crop supply and demand constraints in Brussels.

For most farmers dedicated protein crops are not competitive in arable rotations and evidence collected by the NFU points to a need for EU support in research, to overcome existing constraints to production to meet significant demand in domestic food and feed markets.

Some advocate complicated subsidy schemes, but without a step change in productivity from the crops in question, this may be difficult to sustain.  There is much to achieve and breeding priorities for better yield and yield stability. Better plant physiology is also needed to combat pests and diseases, while there is room for greater collaboration in the EU to help science, plant breeders and farmers deliver more competitive protein supplies, said Mr Leggott.