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Informist, Wednesday, Apr. 9, 2025

MUMBAI – World demand for pulses is likely to rise due to rising usage of pulses as animal feed, Gaurav Jain, founder and chief executive officer of AgPulse Analytica, said Wednesday at the Australian Grains Industry Conference India 2025. Jain said usage of pulses as animal feed can top 30 million tonnes by 2033, if prices remain affordable and their availability increases. The global demand for pulses as feed in 2023 was 21.42 million tonnes, he said citing the outlook by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Jain said consumption of pulses as feed and other uses will increase faster than the food consumption growth. Pulses are non-allergen, non-genetically modified, and a clean and cheap source of protein, which are used as animal feed in China and Europe, he said. Human consumption of pulses may rise to 80 million tonnes by 2033, higher than the global organisation's outlook of 74.74 million tonnes, he said. In 2023, the world pulses consumption as food was 57.84 million tonnes.

These factors are likely to support production of pulses globally and Jain said by 2033, world's pulses production is expected to be about 180 million tonnes from an acreage of 111 million hectares. In a presentation at the event, Jain said global pulses production in 2023 was 95.11 million tonnes and in 2024 it was about 100 million tonnes. He expects exports to rise to 22 million tonnes by 2033 from 18.83 million tonnes in 2023, and 20 million tonnes in 2024.

Talking about human consumption, the global per capita pulses consumption in 2017 rose by 16% to 7.95 kg per year due to demand from south Asian countries, he said. However, per capita pulses consumption fell after that and in 2024 it was 7.39 kg per year due to high prices.

Jain said there is scope for human consumption to grow to 7.95 kg per year or even higher to 8.00 kg per year if countries like Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Canada, Brazil, and India allocate more land to pulses. Consumption can rise if the cost of production is low, which is possible with high yielding variety seeds and if the global tariffs remain low, he said. This will leave more money for research and development, he said.

Talking about chickpeas, Jain said production has remained stagnant over the year and there is also a persistent supply deficit. However, in 2024 the supply deficit fell to 130,000 tonnes from 1.64 million tonnes a year ago. He said the world chickpea production is seen about 14 million tonnes in 2025, while it was at 13.4 million tonnes in 2024.

In the case of lentils, the supply scenario is different as there has been surplus over the years as Russia and Kazakhstan have increased their production and there is surplus stock with the Indian government agencies, Jain said. Supply deficit in lentils was last seen in 2021-22 (Jul-Jun), which was 458,000 tonnes. Since 2022-23, there has been over supply of the pulse globally and in 2024-25 the surplus was 563,000 tonnes. In the current year, it is seen at 150,000 tonnes. Jain said world lentil production is seen about 7.7 million tonnes in 2025, down from 8.1 million tonnes in 2024.  End

Reported by J. Navya Sruthi and Ashutosh Pati 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

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