Future Role Of Cooperatives In Marketing Beans, Peas, And Lentils

Pulse production in the United States has become geographically specific and concentrated, and the marketing channels for pulses have changed dramatically over the past 30 years. The most marked change has be~n the growth of large proprietary marketing firms which are vertically integrated as national packagers and exporters, and procure directly from pulse producers through their own elevators. Farmer cooperatives as a whole have been unable to effectively countervail this growth in market concentration. Cooperatives do, 'however, have the potential to counteract their competition's position by pooling pulses, merging regional marketing agencies into a single national cooperative marketing agency in common, and/or by packaging, canning and exporting pulses themselves.