Hi Gonzalo, it's great to see you again! Tell us what's been going on in the Spanish pulse industry.

The prices of pulses have increased alongside the dollar – we thought the dollar might get weaker, but in the end, it got stronger. The price of money has increased and so have interest rates. We've been trying to find ways to adapt our prices accordingly, but naturally, the market was reluctant to accept rises. Since the inflation began the situation has improved somewhat because the price rises have not affected just pulses, but all food categories. 

It hasn't been easy to decide on prices, because sometimes you would work at a price that you thought was sufficient, and you end up working with really small margins. That’s been the big challenge this year – figuring out how to translate the rises in our costs into our products while continuing to make profits.

What changes in consumer behavior in Spain have you seen as a result of price rises?

I’m sensing what you might call a shift in consumer tastes towards more economical products. Spain has always been a very demanding country in terms of the quality and caliber of its pulses. Still, I think there's now more acceptance of products that are maybe not poorer quality, but definitely of a smaller caliber.

Spain is also for the most part a consumer of generic 'white label' pulses – these make up between 70-80% of the cooked pulses with the other 20% made up of the leading pulse brands. I think we're seeing further shifts towards these white-label products.