Pulses

Bean and Pulses Trading 

Imperium Commodity Search manage relationships across all soft commodities and agricultural markets, including beans and pulses.  Our expert search consultants have experience working with traders, merchandisers and sourcing personnel across Canada, United States and the Middle East as well as sales exposure in APAC. 

Imperium Commodity Search is positioned to offer a global service to candidates and clients in the export and domestic pulses trading markets. 

What are Pulses? 

To learn about pulses, it is key to understand what legumes are and how they are cultivated to produce what we consider to be pulses.  Legumes are a family of plants or crops that produce beans or seeds grown in a husk/pod such as peas, peanuts and beans.  

Pulses are the dried and extracted seeds and beans from the pods of leguminous plants.  Pulses are commonly used as feed ingredients (around 25% of global production) and also as a staple food in much of the developing world.  Pulses tale substantially less water to grow (around 40 gallons of water for 1lb of product) when compared with non-pulse grains such as soybean (which takes over 200 gallons of water to produce 1lb of product).  

Pulses are a sustainable agricultural product, taking little water to grow and contributing vital nutrients (such as nitrogen) back into the soil where they grow.  The popularity of pulses is growing steadily as the demand for sustainable food sources increases.  Pulses are also regarded as a particularly healthy grain due to their low fat and sodium content alongside their high fibre and protein stats. 

Well known pulses include Dry Beans, Dry/Split Peas, Chickpeas and Lentils. These are common ingredients in many Asian cuisines and are rapidly become popular in modern eateries across Europe and the US.  

How are Pulses traded? 

The value chain of pulse trading varies from region to region, but there are often numerous stages of physical pulses trading.  Often a merchandiser or agent will maintain relationships with farmers/producers of pulses, chickpeas, beans etc and purchase these directly from farms, selling them into wholesale traders or trading houses.  The trading houses then sell these either directly into animal feed manufacturers to be processed and packed, or to retailers and food manufacturers to be used in cooking, food preparation or to be packaged and sold onto consumers through supermarkets and health food stores. 

Where are Pulses traded?  

Pulses are grown globally and in the early 2010’s there were over 170 countries growing and exporting pulses globally, covering every single continent.  Each year there are over 60 million metric tonnes of pulse products grown.  

The largest exporters of pulses (in USD/an.) are:

Canada (1.2bn)
USA (600m)
Australia (450m)
Myanmar (400m)
China (380m)

The worlds largest importers of pulses (in USD/an.) are: 

India (1.1bn)
Pakistan (500m)
USA (400m)
Egypt (380m)
Turkey (350m)

Who are the clients? 

Most pulses end up in the human food chain (around 75%) while the rest ends with animal feed producers (25%).  Pulses are sold directly into retailers, packagers and process from trading houses who purchase the product from farms or local wholesalers/cooperatives.  Retail facing pulses are often found in supermarkets, health stores and in prepared meals or restaurants.  Pulses are often used in meat free alternatives to burgers and other meat products as a vegetarian meal. 

What is the Salary for a pulses trader? 

Salaries vary largely by region.  In Canada a mid seniority pulses trader can earn anywhere between 80-150,000CAD.  There are usually bonuses and commissions paid against profit or PnL for the traders and merchandisers involved in the trading chain of the global pulses markets.  Export traders tend to earn slightly higher salaries and bonuses when compared to domestic traders as they have a wider market coverage and are usually involved in more stakeholders on the logistics and operational side of pulses trading. 

Imperium Commodity Search – Specialist Headhunter to the global Agricultural Trading Markets 

Imperium Commodity Search has experience working directly with back to back traders across Canada, the US and Asia across a range of soft and agricultural commodities including pulses and specialty beans/food ingredients. 

To discuss finding your next role within pulses trading, operations and sourcing, or to find out how Imperium Commodity Search can give your firm a competitive edge in a volatile market, then please call us now on +44 (0) 203 927 5090 or register online here and one of our Soft Commodity Consultants will contact you ASAP.

View our Bean and Pulses Trading jobs or contact one of our consultants to discuss current careers / jobs in pulse trading to discuss your needs in more detail. 

To arrange a consultation with a consultant to discuss your hiring needs / growth plans and where we can assist click here or contact one of our consultants directly here for a confidential discussion.

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