Pulses: Characteristics
Size, colour and moisture: grading a lentil
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | 97.1 Mt of dry pulses (2024); chickpeas 16.9 Mt, lentils 7.9 Mt | India grew 25.4 Mt (26.2%); its 2024-25 crop was 25.23 Mt by the Ministry of Agriculture. Canada and Australia grow most traded lentils and peas. | FAOSTAT 2024; Ministry of Agriculture |
| Inventory and stock levels | India buffer 2.48 Mt (Sept 2025) against a 3.5 Mt norm, about one month of Indian use | NAFED and NCCF held moong 0.90 Mt, masoor 0.64 Mt and tur 0.60 Mt under the Price Stabilisation Fund. Indian use of about 32-33 Mt a year means the buffer covers about 4 weeks. Canada publishes farm and commercial stocks through Statistics Canada; there is no world series. | India Sea Trade News, Sep 2025; content of this tile (derived) |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | India's dal mills are many and small, and run below capacity in years of short crops. No official utilisation is published. Government stock limits on millers during shortages show the sector is short of raw pulses, not of milling capacity. | content of this tile (qualitative) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | chickpeas: India 65.4%, top-3 82.2%, HHI 4,499; lentils: Canada 30.8%, top-3 69.6%, HHI 1,837 (2024) | Exports: Canada 21.8%, Australia 15.1%, Myanmar 11.4%. Imports: India 34.1%. AGT, Viterra, ETG and ofi are the large merchants. | FAOSTAT 2024; UN Comtrade 2024 |
| Supply elasticity | high on area within a season, but yields depend on monsoon | Indian farmers shift area between pulses, oilseeds and cereals on MSP and price. Imports respond within months when India cuts duties: duty-free yellow peas from December 2023 drove record imports of 7.34 Mt in FY2025. | content of this tile |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | India's Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses: Rs 11,440 crore over 2025-26 to 2030-31, target about 35 Mt | The mission targets tur, urad and masoor with seed, procurement at MSP and new area. Canada and Australia are adding area for red lentils and chickpeas for the Indian market. | PIB, Oct 2025 (indicative) |
| Logistics and export flows | pulse exports worth $15.7 bn (2024), about a sixth of output | Canadian lentils and peas rail to Vancouver and ship in containers or bulk to Mundra, Nhava Sheva and Kolkata. Australian chickpeas ship from Melbourne and Brisbane; Myanmar tur and urad cross by sea to Chennai and Mumbai. Indian duty changes and fumigation rules are frequent bottlenecks. | UN Comtrade 2024; content of this tile |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Pulses are traded by type, size, colour and cleanliness. Moisture decides storability. Protein content (about 20-25%) is their nutritional value and rising industrial use. For dal millers, dehulling and splitting recovery is what pays, and that depends on seed size and uniformity.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moisture | at most 14-15% for storage | Wet pulses heat, mould and attract insects | Codex CXS 171-1989; Canadian Grain Commission grades |
| Protein content | lentils about 24-26%, peas about 22-24%, chickpeas about 19-21% (dry basis) | Basis of food value and pea protein extraction | food composition literature (indicative) |
| Foreign material and damage | Codex: extraneous matter at most 1%, of which inorganic at most 0.25%; tighter in top Canadian grades | Sets cleaning losses and grade price | Codex CXS 171-1989; Canadian Grain Commission |
| Seed size and type | e.g. kabuli chickpea graded by mm (8-12 mm); large green vs small red lentils | Bigger, uniform seed earns premiums and mills better | trade specs (indicative) |
| Dal milling recovery | about 70-80% of whole seed by weight | Determines miller margin | industry practice (indicative) |
| Colour and grade | Canada No. 1 to No. 3 and extra grades by colour and defects | Sets export price | Canadian Grain Commission Official Grain Grading Guide |