# Where do lentils come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/lentils/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/lentils.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Lentils come mainly from Canada, which produced 2.4 million tonnes in 2024, 31% of the world's 7.9 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India (23%), Australia (16%) and Kazakhstan (5.8%) follow; the top five together supply 81%. The biggest exporter of lentils (HS 071340) is Canada (38% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). Lentils are a short-season legume that needs a dry finish to harvest cleanly, so the world's exportable surplus grows on the semi-arid plains of Saskatchewan, southern Australia and northern Kazakhstan, while the largest consuming country, India, grows a crop its own kitchens absorb.

*A fast-cooking pulse grown in dry temperate zones and traded heavily into South Asia.* Also called: lentil, red lentils, masoor, dal.

## Where do lentils come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2024 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada | 2.4 million | 31% |
| 2 | India | 1.8 million | 23% |
| 3 | Australia | 1.3 million | 16% |
| 4 | Kazakhstan | 455,960 | 5.8% |
| 5 | United States | 410,460 | 5.2% |
| 6 | Turkey (Türkiye) | 405,000 | 5.1% |
| 7 | Russia | 239,886 | 3% |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 184,819 | 2.3% |
| 9 | China | 167,596 | 2.1% |
| 10 | Nepal | 152,936 | 1.9% |
| | Rest of world | 0 | 4.8% |
| | World | 7.9 million | 100% |

Source: FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024.

In 2024 Canada produced 2.4 million tonnes, 31% of the world's 7.9 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India followed with 23%, then Australia (16%), Kazakhstan (5.8%) and United States (5.2%). The top five account for 81%, 43 countries reported a crop and 4.8% came from outside the top ten. World production changed +67% over the ten years to 2024 and +16% on the previous year.

The gap between where lentils grow and where they are eaten defines the crop. Canada and Australia grow lentils they barely eat, on dry land where a short-season legume fits neatly into a cereal rotation and where harvest falls in settled weather. India and its neighbors eat lentils daily and grow less than they consume.

Color and size divide the crop again. Red lentils, dehulled and split, cook in minutes and dominate South Asian and Middle Eastern demand, while large green lentils hold their shape and go to Europe, North Africa and North America. Kazakhstan's rapid entry came from converting grain land, and most of its crop moves to Turkey (Türkiye).


## Who exports and imports lentils?

### Exporters of lentils, dried and shelled (HS 071340), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada | $1.6 billion | 38% |
| 2 | Australia | $909 million | 22% |
| 3 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $619.6 million | 15% |
| 4 | United States | $333.1 million | 8% |
| 5 | India | $182.8 million | 4.4% |
| 6 | Russia | $148.6 million | 3.6% |
| 7 | Kazakhstan | $109.5 million | 2.6% |
| 8 | United Arab Emirates | $76.1 million | 1.8% |
| 9 | Egypt | $26.7 million | 0.6% |
| 10 | Belgium | $16.8 million | 0.4% |
| 11 | Netherlands | $13.2 million | 0.3% |
| 12 | Ukraine | $11.5 million | 0.3% |
| 13 | Bahrain | $10.7 million | 0.3% |
| 14 | Germany | $10.4 million | 0.2% |
| 15 | Argentina | $10.2 million | 0.2% |

### Importers of lentils, dried and shelled (HS 071340), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | $844.5 million | 20% |
| 2 | Bangladesh | $427.3 million | 10% |
| 3 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $411.9 million | 9.9% |
| 4 | United Arab Emirates | $221.1 million | 5.3% |
| 5 | Iraq | $216.6 million | 5.2% |
| 6 | Egypt | $189.5 million | 4.5% |
| 7 | Algeria | $133.9 million | 3.2% |
| 8 | Sri Lanka | $122.4 million | 2.9% |
| 9 | Pakistan | $107.5 million | 2.6% |
| 10 | Canada | $105.9 million | 2.5% |
| 11 | Colombia | $105.5 million | 2.5% |
| 12 | Sudan | $88.6 million | 2.1% |
| 13 | United States | $82 million | 2% |
| 14 | Italy | $75.2 million | 1.8% |
| 15 | Morocco | $71.8 million | 1.7% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Canada was the largest exporter of lentils (HS 071340) in 2024 with 38% of world export value, ahead of Australia (22%), on world trade of $4.2 billion (CEPII BACI). India was the largest importer with 20%.

Turkey appears near the top of both tables, and that is a processing business rather than a contradiction. It buys whole red lentils, dehulls, splits, polishes and repacks them, then re-exports into the Middle East and North Africa. Canada supplies both the raw material and, in competition, the finished article.

India is the market everything else orbits. Its own rabi harvest, its stocks and its import duty decide how much of the Canadian and Australian crop finds a home, and Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq take much of the rest.


## What do lentils cost?

### How they are priced

There is no futures market for lentils and no free public benchmark price, so this site quotes none. Prices are physical and specific: grower bids posted by Canadian and Australian processors for a named grade, fob offers from exporters, and mandi prices in India. Private newsletters publish assessments, but they are subscription products.

Much of the crop is sold before it is grown. Processors offer production contracts at a fixed price for a stated tonnage, usually with an act of God clause that releases the grower if the crop fails, and the balance is sold spot at harvest. Importing governments add a second layer, buying by public tender, and those awards are among the few prices anyone outside the trade can see.


## What moves the price of lentils?

### India's import duty and its own crop

India is the largest importer and moves its lentil duty between zero and punitive rates within a few seasons to manage domestic prices. With the size of its own rabi harvest, that decision determines whether Canadian and Australian growers face a deep market or a thin one.

### Prairie growing-season weather

Much of the world's exportable lentil supply comes from one dry region of western Canada, so a heat wave or drought there removes tonnage the rest of the world cannot replace. The 2021 Prairie drought cut the Canadian crop sharply and tightened export availability for a full year.

### Color and quality rather than tonnage

Rain at harvest stains and sprouts lentils and can drop a lot from human-consumption grade to feed within days. Because the premium sits in appearance for green lentils and milling yield for red, two crops of identical weight can be worth very different amounts.

### Rotation limits and root disease

Lentils fix nitrogen and break cereal disease cycles, as [chickpeas](/commodities/chickpeas/) do, but aphanomyces root rot persists in soil for years and forces long gaps between pulse crops. That caps how far area can expand in the established growing regions whatever the price does.

### New supply from central Asia

Kazakhstan and its neighbors have converted grain land to lentils and supply Turkey in volume, changing the arithmetic for Canadian and Australian sellers into the Mediterranean. Supply that arrives by rail and truck competes on different freight economics from supply shipped in containers.

## How are lentils produced?

Lentils are a small bushy annual, seeded shallow and often into standing cereal stubble that shelters the crop and holds moisture. They nodulate and fix their own nitrogen, flower and pod over a few weeks, and mature in roughly three months, short enough to fit between a cereal harvest and a hard frost.

Harvest is the difficult part. The plant is short and the lowest pods sit close to the ground, so growers either desiccate the crop and straight-cut it or swath and pick it up, and either way stones are a constant hazard. The seed is then cleaned, sized and color sorted.

Red lentils are processed further. The seed coat is scoured off and the cotyledons split, producing the fast-cooking orange splits sold across South Asia and the Middle East, and the splits are usually polished. Green lentils are sold whole with the seed coat intact, because the appearance is the product.


## What are lentils used for?

Lentils are almost entirely a food crop. Red splits cook down into dal, soups and purees in twenty minutes and need no soaking, which is much of their appeal, while green and brown lentils hold their shape for salads and canning. Lentil flour and lentil protein have found a place in snacks, pasta and plant-based foods.

The by-products are feed and fertility. Hulls, screenings and chaff from cleaning go to livestock, and lentil straw is fed as fodder. The larger by-product is agronomic: the nitrogen the crop fixes and the disease break it gives the following cereal, which is why growers plant lentils even in a poor price year.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

Canadian lentils move from farm bins to pulse plants across southern Saskatchewan, where they are cleaned, sized and color sorted and red lentils are dehulled and split. From there they are containerized inland and railed to Vancouver, Montreal and Thunder Bay, or trucked south into the United States.

Australia runs a similar chain out of South Australia and Victoria through Melbourne, Adelaide and Port Kembla, while Kazakhstan's crop moves overland by rail and truck toward Turkey. Turkey then acts as the region's processing and re-export hub, so a lentil can cross several borders before it is eaten.

The vulnerabilities are concentration and containers. One dry region supplies much of world trade, so a single bad season is a world event, and because pulses move in boxes rather than bulk, container availability and freight rates feed straight through into the delivered price in South Asia.


## Timeline

- 1960s: Saskatchewan farmers begin growing pulses for export. The first commercial peas and lentils on the Canadian prairies established a crop that would come to dominate world lentil trade. (https://esask.uregina.ca/entry/pulse_crops_and_industry.html)
- 1978: The Laird lentil is released. A large green variety bred at the Crop Development Centre in Saskatoon, released as drought cut the American Palouse crop, turned Saskatchewan into the world's lentil supplier. (https://news.usask.ca/articles/research/2021/lentils-first-breakthrough-in-cdc-history-of-re-shaping-prairie-agriculture.php)
- 1996: Red lentil area begins expanding in Saskatchewan. Adding red lentils to a green-lentil industry opened the far larger South Asian and Middle Eastern market and reshaped what the prairies grew. (https://esask.uregina.ca/entry/pulse_crops_and_industry.html)
- 2016: The UN runs an International Year of Pulses. The campaign put the nitrogen-fixing and nutritional case for lentils in front of food manufacturers and agronomists at the same time. (https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/From-butter-beans-to-pigeon-peas-UN-launches-International-Year-of-Pulses/en)
- 2017: India imposes duties on imported lentils. Tariffs applied to protect Indian growers cut the world's largest buyer out of the market and collapsed the share of North American pulse exports going to India. (https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/september/u-s-exports-of-chickpeas-lentils-and-dry-peas-have-dropped-sharply-due-to-a-steep-decline-in-shipments-to-india)
- 2021: Drought cuts the Canadian prairie crop. Heat and moisture deficit through June and July collapsed Saskatchewan lentil crop ratings and forced export rationing from the origin that supplies most of world trade. (https://saskpulse.com/resources/canadian-pea-and-lentil-outlook/)
- 2024: Kazakhstan reaches record lentil exports. A new origin shipping mostly to Turkey showed that lentil supply can be built quickly on converted grain land, adding competition in the Mediterranean market. (https://ukragroconsult.com/en/news/kazakhstan-heads-for-a-new-lentil-export-record/)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most lentils

Canada produced 2.4 million tonnes in 2024, 31% of the world's 7.9 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India was second with 23%, and the top five together accounted for 81%. Almost all of Canada's crop comes from Saskatchewan and almost all of it is exported, which is why Canada also leads the export table.

### why does india import so many lentils

Because it eats far more than it grows. India was the largest importer of lentils in 2024, taking 20% of world import value (CEPII BACI), even though it was also the second largest producer. Its own rabi crop and its import duty decide how much it buys in any year.

### what is the difference between red and green lentils

Red lentils are dehulled and split, so they cook in about twenty minutes and break down into dal and soups. Green and brown lentils keep their seed coat, hold their shape and take longer to cook. They are graded and priced separately, and they serve different markets.

### why does turkey both import and export lentils

Because it processes them. Turkish plants buy whole red lentils, dehull, split, polish and repack them, then re-export into the Middle East and North Africa. That is why Turkey appears near the top of both the import and the export tables in 2024 (CEPII BACI).

### are lentils good for the soil

They fix atmospheric nitrogen through bacteria in their root nodules, leaving nitrogen for the following crop, and they break the disease cycles that build up under continuous cereals. The limit is root rot: aphanomyces persists in soil for years, so growers must leave long gaps between pulse crops.

### how are lentils priced

By grade, color and size in physical markets, with no futures contract and no published world benchmark. Growers take production contracts from processors before seeding, sell the balance spot at harvest, and importing governments buy by public tender. Indian mandi prices are the reference for the largest consuming market.

## Sources

- FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024. License: CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use). https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where do lentils come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/lentils/.