The market of legumes in France

This report was written by the branch organization of plant oil and proteins. It describes the French market of grain legumes harvested dry and dehydrated alfalfa based on quantitative and qualitative data (production, imports, exports, national uses and prices from 2013 to 2017).
French production of legumes is diverse including field pea (36% of the French legume surface area between 2013 and 2017), soybean (23%), field bean (18%), dehydrated alfalfa (15%), lentil (5%), chickpea (2%) and lupin (1%) crops. Organic production is important.
Field pea and field bean surface areas were stable between 2016 and 2017 (200 000 hectares ; 80 000 hectares) while soybean surface area reached 142 000 hectares. Lentil and chickpea surface areas experienced a strong increase over this same time period (+62% and +105%).
The national feed market is important for the three main species (26%, 55%, 74% of the uses in 2017). Grains are processed into functional ingredients and food products on the national food market. The imports of soybean for the national feed market are important while the national food market is supplied by French produced beans. Food export of field pea depend on the export opportunities while food export of field bean is affected by the bad visual appearance of bruchid field beans.

Authors:

Maëlle SIMMEN
Jean-Paul LACAMPAGNE