The GPC’s Ask The Experts Europe Spain panel featured Moderator Albert Garcia of Alons-Gar, Analyst José Manuel Álvarez of Asociación de Legumbristas de España and Panelists Pedro Luengo of Legumbres Luengo, Santiago Blázquez of Santiago Blázquez S.L. and Pedro Álvarez of Legumbres Pénelas.
José Manuel Álvarez presented an overview of Spanish pulses. He touched on dry beans, mentioning that import and production have both been steady for a 5-year period, chickpeas, indicating that there may be a rising trend in imports, and lentils, which are the most important pulse into Spain, with high import volumes. He also mentioned that in Spain, beans are an irrigated crop while chickpeas and lentils are not.
He observed that chickpea imports have shifted in the past few years from Mexico to the US due to a growing consumer preference for US chickpeas. Likewise, he noted that lentil imports have shifted from Canada to the US in recent years. Most bean imports into Spain come from Argentina. He finished by presenting a ‘good news’ news chartm which showed a steady rise in pulses consumption as of 2016 - coincidentally, the International Year of Pulses. Chickpeas are the preferred pulse for Spanish consumers.
Pedro Álvarez highlighted that changing lifestyles have caused consumers to prefer wet pulses to dry pulses and that Spanish consumers prefer jars to cans because they like to see the product they are buying. He also noted that consumption varies from region to region in Spain.
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