Fresh broad beans are found in the markets all the year round. The culture in countries of different latitudes, the diversity of varieties cultivated, along with the conservation technologies make it possible to sell this vegetable all over the year. Nevertheless, not all the countries have this benefit, only those with high purchasing power.
In order to analyse the availability of broad beans throughout the year, the British market is evaluated. As it may be observed in the table, the United Kingdom has broad beans all the year round, imported from many different places.

Supplier country	Period of the year (N Hemisphere)	Weight of the packages (kg)
Egypt	October-March	-
France	April-June	-
Ireland	June-September	10
Italy	April-June	-
Portugal	March-May	10/12/20/30
Spain	March-June	-
United Kingdom	June-July	3.5/4.5/9

Source: Fresh Produce Desk Book, 1999

In Spain there are fresh broad beans from November until March (variety Aguadulce, that must be sown at the end of autumn) and from May to August (later varieties). It is dangerous to cultivate them in both periods, since both the low and the high temperatures are disadvantageous.