Dry Beans

Dry edible beans are traded by class, and each class has its own buyer. Navy beans go overwhelmingly into baked beans, where hydration behaviour and skin integrity after retort decide whether the can looks right. Pinto and black beans go into Latin American style prepared foods and dry retail. Kidney beans are appearance-critical: colour depth and freedom from bleaching are the whole argument. Whatever the class, the canner's real specification is cooking performance. Beans that have been stored too long or too warm develop hard-to-cook defect — they meet every visual grade and still refuse to hydrate properly. That is why crop year and storage history are worth asking about, and why we quote against a defined crop position rather than an anonymous warehouse lot. For dry retail, screen size and colour uniformity carry more weight than cooking curve, because the consumer judges the pack before the pot.

Navy / white pea beans: The canning standard for baked beans. Pinto beans: Prepared foods, refried products and dry retail. Black beans: Colour retention after cooking is the key quality point. Dark and light red kidney beans: Appearance-critical; graded on colour and defects. Great northern beans: Larger white bean for soups and prepared dishes.

Purity — Typically 99 %+ machine cleaned, food grade. Moisture — Normally 14–16 % maximum depending on class and destination. Defects — Splits, cracked seed coat, discoloured and foreign material per contract. Sizing — Screen size stated by class where the buyer requires it. Processing — Cleaned, gravity separated, colour sorted; polished on request. Values vary by grade, crop year and supplier and are confirmed against supplier documentation at quotation.

Canadian dry bean production is centred in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, with Ontario historically strong in white pea (navy) beans supplying the canning trade. Cleaning, sizing and packing capacity sits close to the growing areas. Because the classes are grown in different regions, availability is class-specific — a strong navy bean year does not automatically mean kidney beans are freely available. Enquiries that name the class and volume get a straight answer faster. Origin, availability, grade and certification are confirmed at quotation for the lot actually offered — origin is a supply attribute, never an assumed property of the product.

State the class and the intended process — canning and dry retail have genuinely different acceptance criteria. · Beans are moisture-sensitive in transit; container lining and ventilation are specified per route. · Quoted FOB, CFR or CIF.

Commonly relevant documentation: Certificate of Analysis · Phytosanitary Certificate · Certificate of Origin · Fumigation certificate where required · Independent survey certificate on request. Availability is confirmed per order and per destination.