Beans
Wizard has now established itself as the most widely grown Winter Bean variety, with over 90% of the 2009 crop. Trade estimates put the 2009 winter bean crop at around 85,000 Ha. The overall bean area therefore has potential for around 650,000 tonnes production. This is up on previous years but does still not match the 225,000Ha of 2005.
Quality from this harvest has been variable, with spring beans being smaller than usual and bruchid infections causing more rejections in the south of the country. Wizard quality has this year been very good, with good even sized grains with showing less shrivelled, the slightly smaller size this year has also increased the physical appearance. Sultan ( new introduction for 2009) will start to make inroads into the faba market, although it will be 2010 before we see serious quantiies coming forward.
UK Areas grown (based on DEFRA census figures/Wherry estimate )
|
Harvest Year |
Spring Peas |
Spring Beans |
Winter Beans |
|
2009 |
42,000Ha |
85,000Ha |
85,000Ha |
|
2008 |
35,000Ha |
69,000Ha |
68,000Ha |
|
2007 |
40,000Ha |
60,000Ha |
59,000Ha |
|
2006 |
48,000Ha |
95,000Ha |
75,000Ha |
Peas
Peas have increased for 2009 harvest, perhaps due to the available land and also due to new variety introductions.. Prices have started to balance out shortfalls in supply and into 2009/10 looks very promising for growers. New marrowfat varieties such as Sakura and Genki coming through the system with much improved standing ability will attract new pea growers. Initial samples of Sakura have been encouraging with good colour retention and excellent seed sizes being achieved. The blue pea area is dominated by Prophet, which has yielded well and suits many different marketing options. Yellow peas are lead by Mascara and Ragtime although areas of yellows have dropped dramatically in recent years. The pea area is still less than half of where it was 6 years ago, the long term growers are now left with excellent marketing opportunities for the coming season.
