Russia Pulse Harvest Update/
Pea, lentil and chickpea yields and the impact of weather

In recent years, Russia has become increasingly important as a global supplier of lentils, chickpeas, and dry peas. Accordingly, the pulse industry is watching Russia's pulse crops this year with a keen eye to see if an increased acreage will translate to a strong, high quality crop. Unfortunately, the cycle has not been without its difficulties, but how much has that damaged harvest outcomes?

Weather –  Pulse acres squeezed by climate chaos

There have been three extreme weather events affecting the Russian pulse cycle this year – frosts, drought, and heavy rains. Back in May, frosts damaged or destroyed a reported 1.1 million hectares of summer crops. Intermittent drought and heavy rains also caused problems. Omer Cetintas of Agromer told GPC that "40% of Russian farmers needed to reseed pulses" due to heavy rains that "wiped out" certain crops.

Russia’s size makes it difficult to generalize about the effects of the extreme weather, but Sergey Pluzhnikov, CEO of Russian Pulses Analytics, believes there will be notable effects: "This year's bad weather will be reflected in marinated chickpeas and shriveled lentils, as well as in green pea grains, which may also be of smaller caliber."

Weather for the remainder of the harvest

The harvest in Russia has been delayed in places due to recent wet weather, and remains incomplete. 

Tareq Awad of Fruitimpex believes some time remains for the completion, but weather remains a factor: "As of right now, the harvest is at about 75% complete. It is finished in the southern regions but other northern regions like Siberia still remain. The harvest is going very slowly and has been delayed due to the late rains – we expect the harvest will be finished at the end of September.”

Russia’s pulse harvest – Acreages go up, yields come down; quality takes a hit from rains

Dry peas

Last year‘s bumper dry pea crop was always going to be a tough act to follow, and so it has transpired. In Gaurav Jain's August 26 article for GPC, he reported that his organization, AgPulse Analytica, expected a "significant drop in the national yield figure for peas." As of September 17, Jain states these figures hold true.

Russian state agriculture figures put dry pea acreage 17% up on last year at around 2.2 million hectares. Sergey Pluzhnikov suggests that through this jump in acreage it has been possible to “compensate for the decreasing yield by having increased the area." 

AgPulse Analytica’s estimate put yields at around 1.98 tonnes/hectare – an 18% drop on last year's figures – which would create a production estimate of 4.25 million tonnes. This would represent a 10% drop YoY. Pluzhnikov estimates the pea yield drop is between 20-25% while Top Grain’s Ivan Basov indicated in a Whatsapp message that the decrease could be up to 30%. Tareq Awad has suggested total pea output will be between 3.5-3.7 million tonnes.

Quality will also be a concern. Recent rains will "undoubtedly affect the quality of the harvest", according to Pluzhnikov, but Omer Cetintas suggests yellow peas may be the exception amongst damaged pulse crops, as many yellow peas have been harvested early enough to mitigate damage. 

Chickpeas

With the rumors of India lifting its kabuli chickpea duty, Russia's chickpea crop has become more important. The acreage figures for 2024 have not been released by the state, but Tareq Awad suggests around 372,000 hectares were dedicated to kabuli in 2024. Pluzhnikov noted that some publications recently discussed combined chickpea and lentil areas exceeding 1.5 million ha – a 70% rise YoY. He cautioned that these figures appear "very high" and that such an increase seems "unlikely".

Last year, Russia produced 528 thousand tonnes of chickpeas from 480,000 hectares, and before recent rains inundated some pulses, Sergey Pluzhnikov believes he "would have bet on 600 thousand tonnes of chickpeas" from this year’s acres. Awad has stated he puts this year’s kabuli production at around 500 thousand tonnes and has described its quality as “average”. Pluzhnikov believes as much as 25% of the crop may have a ‘higher contamination of water damaged seeds.”

Lentils

As many lentils are yet to be harvested, it is hard to get a read on yields. Last year, Pulse Atlas data put green lentil production at 192 thousand tonnes. In an August 23 report the India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) estimated that acreage expanded to 300,000 hectares, but that production will be limited to 300 thousand tonnes due to a drop in yields. They put red lentils between 80-100 thousand tonnes and greens between 175-200 thousand tonnes.

As of September 12, Tareq Awad puts harvesting of lentils in Russia at 70% progress, stating that "Black Sea region is already harvested, but Siberia still continues harvesting," and agrees with the IPGA conclusion that lentil production could be limited to less than 300 thousand tonnes. 

"Red lentils will be about 80–100 thousand tonnes," says Awad, "whereas green lentils will be more like 175-200 thousand tonnes."

Sergey Pluzhnikov paints a mixed picture about yields, but not a completely negative one: "Lentil zones have fallen into both drought and rain, and Altai will suffer more due to rain – that may upset traders who are targeting cheap Altai green lentils. The situation with red lentils in Saratov is ambiguous – some places managed to harvest before the rains, others did not.”

"The crop samples farmers send us are sometimes very good in areas where it rains infrequently and for a short time," continues Pluzhnikov. "It sounds far from a disaster, as our farmers will show."