Market Prospects with Franek Smith

Welcome back to Inside the Pod, the PGRO podcast.In episode two of the new season, host Ben Pike speaks to Roger Vickers, who retires as this month, to reflect on his time as PGRO’s CEO during what has been a long and successful tenure in the company’s top job.Matt Webster then speaks to Grace Welling and David Lloyd from Germinal about their involvement in the flavourless pea protein project, in which the company partners with PGRO and other partners to produce an alternative protein crop to imported soya using peas.With the launch of the 2027 Descriptive List arriving soon, Matt then speaks to Dr Chris Judge, PGRO Senior Technical Officer, about what to expect from the launch and the work that has gone on in preparation for this year’s list.Finally, we end the episode with a brief word from Bryony Graham, who is one of the speakers at the upcoming From Soya to Sustainability Conference in January.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a future episode!

Welcome back to Inside the Pod, the PGRO podcast.With a new episode format for this season, Inside the Pod returns with longer episodes covering more topics that hopefully interest and help you, the pulse grower.In this first episode of a new episode, host Ben Pike speaks to Matthew Green from AB Mauri about pulse milling and their experience in developing pulse-based products for the bakery sector.He is then joined by PGRO's Erin Matlock and George Goodwin, Managing Director at Senova, to talk about the Pulse Performance Network, a new benchmarking tool for pulse growers, providing a new structure and a sharpened focus on delivering practical, farm0-ready insights for today's growers.Finally, we end the episode reflecting on the recent announcement that PGRO CEO Roger Vickers will be retiring in the coming months - we wish him all the best in his next chapter.We hope you enjoy this episode, and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a future episode!

Welcome to Inside the Pod, the PGRO podcast. In this episode of the podcast, host Ben Pike attends the PGRO's annual Pulse Crop Open Day in Lincolnshire, where he takes a look at the various trials that were on show.Ben speaks to Dr Becky Howard about PGRO's work with the ANSWERs project, as well as the NCS Project which is coming into its final year. He also catches up with Alek Ligeza to talk about PGRO's work with herbicides, plus he speaks to Will Evans about his work with lentils and chickpeas.To find out more about PGRO's trial work and what was on show at this year's open day, head to pgro.org for more information.

In this episode of Inside the Pod, host Ben Pike speaks to Dr Chris Judge from the PGRO's Vining Pea Open Day in Nocton, Lincolnshire, where PGRO's vining pea trials were on show for growers to see, which was held on Monday 15th June.To find out more about PGRO's vining pea trial work, head to pgro.org

In this episode of Inside the Pod, host Ben Pike speaks to PGRO Research Agronomist Erin Matlock about the PGRO's Pulse Performance Network, which was launched at Cereals on 11 June.PGRO will establish the Pulse Performance Network (PPN) this autumn, marking a significant new chapter for crop benchmarking and analysis for pea and bean growers. Following 10 successful years of the pulse yield enhancement networks (YENs) under ADAS, the PGRO will create a new structure and a sharpened focus on delivering practical, farm-ready insights for today's growers.Benchmarking has a strong reputation for bringing together growers, agronomists, researchers, and industry partners to push the boundaries of crop productivity, environmental performance, and grain quality.Under PGRO's leadership, the network aims to introduce new tools and approaches designed to make participation easier and more valuable.The goal is not just to measure performance, but to ensure every dataset collected translates into something meaningful, whether that's improving yield efficiency, enhancing crop quality, or reducing environmental impact. The PPN aims to turn data into decisions.By simplifying participation, strengthening collaboration, and focusing on actionable insight, the PPN aims to ensure every participant walks away with knowledge that can be applied directly to their farming system. This evolution will support both growers and the industrial supply chain as the sector works towards greater productivity, consistency, and resilience in UK pulse crops.To support a more streamlined approach, the PGRO has developed a dedicated PPN app that will allow participants to record crop management information directly in the field throughout the season.The PPN will officially open for applications in September.To find out more, head to the PGRO website at pgro.org

Welcome to Inside the Pod, the PGRO podcast.In this episode of Inside the Pod, host Ben Pike is joined by Franek Smith, Associate Director and Senior Trader at Wherry & Sons Ltd, to discuss the latest market prospects from both a grower’s perspective and from a trader’s perspective.Franek talks about the latest developments in the pulse market and how the market is looking for pulse growers across the UK in these turbulent times, with conflict in the Middle East among a number of international and domestic aspects that are influencing a complicated market.

Welcome to Inside the Pod, the PGRO podcast.In this special 50th episode of Inside the Pod, host Ben Pike is joined by Rob Suckling, Commercial Technical Manager at De Sangosse, and Rob Pearson, CEO of AutoSpray Systems to discuss the future of bean production and the applications of sprays with the use of drone technology.Rob Suckling explains how Pod-Stik, De Sangosse’s trademark Pod Sealant product, protects the yield of podding crops, including pulses, by sealing the pod shut for longer to prevent the premature release of seed the combine gets in the field.Rob then goes on to talk about why De Sangosse decided to start utilising drones in the application of Pod-Stik to pulse crops, explaining that applying Pod-Stik from a drone rather than a traditional sprayer gives a much tighter droplet spectrum and reduces mechanical damage with no machine driving through the tramlines.Rob Pearson then goes on to explain that while drones won’t fully replace large self-propelled sprayers that farmers use, they instead provide them with another tool in the spray shed that can be used when access is difficult or when damage to the crop needs to be avoided.To find out more about Pod-Stik head to https://www.desangosse.co.uk/products/pod-sealers/To find out more about AutoSpray Systems go to https://autospraysystems.com

In this episode of Inside the Pod, host Ben Pike speaks to Donal O'Sullivan from the University of Reading about the Raising the Pulse project, a three year project focused on faba beans designed to transform the food system for health and environment and aiming to increase UK pulse consumption for health and sustainability.You can read more about the Raising the Pulse project at https://research.reading.ac.uk/raising-the-pulse/

In this episode of Inside the Pod, Ben Pike takes a look at the latest Pulse Market Update for March 2026.Market values have been remarkably static since the autumn of 2025 with little to report and a clear explanation is not so easy to find. The DEFRA declared cropped area for pulses in 2025 was below 200,000ha - the lowest since crop 2019 and a drop of over 73,000ha over two years - most of which appears to have been at the expense of field beans. It is highly likely that this reflects the negative impact of the uptake of SFI options, although recent inconsistent crop experiences may not have helped.Read the full report now at https://www.pgro.org/pulse-market-update-mach-2026/

In this episode of Inside the Pod, Emily Scaife is joined by Alistair Bell and Jessica Saunders from Frontier to discuss the Frontier Faba Bean Project, which is creating a secure market for human-consumption beans through an exclusive contract, helping growers to manage risk, add further value to the supply chain, and build more sustainable rotations.