A UNIQUE set of circumstances in the global chickpea market has left Australian growers primed to cash in on high demand and prices.
Two failed monsoon seasons in India has sparked an increased demand for Australian chickpeas.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Northern NSW and Southern Queensland accumulation manager, Peter Dorney said fresh opportunities await Australia towards the end of the year.
India’s next chickpea harvest won’t come until early next year and Australian farmers will have an export opportunity between October and Christmas time.
“We’re a winner because we’ll hopefully have a crop off and in India before they harvest a crop,” he said.
“It’s looking like India will take whatever we can export.”
The market has been crowded this season by the high number of growers that included chickpeas in their cropping regime, but prices are expected to stay relatively healthy for this year’s crop.
Australia would typically produce a total chickpea crop of about 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes, but in the past year, an unusually large crop of about one million tonnes was harvested, holding exporters in good store to capitalise on the looming market.
Mr Dorney said Australia proved their ability to shift bulk crop in November last year, when they exported 400,000 tonnes for the month.
Agvantage Commodities trader, Sam Clements, Dubbo, said although there’s still a lot of chickpea crops yet to be planted, prices at this time of year are at record levels - hovering around $1000 a tonne.
Mr Clements said prices have been changing on a daily basis, by $20 to $40. However, the low Australian dollar has made Australian exports more competitive.
Forward selling has slowed down recently, especially in northern NSW and southern Queensland where soil moisture is still minimal.
The majority of growers who have had chickpeas before have taken out some form of forward contact- whether is was based on a certain percentage of production or hectare contract, Mr Clements said.
Mungindi farmer Rebecca Longworth,” South Bunarba”, Mungindi (pictured), said she wouldn’t contemplate forward contracts until she was certain she’d have a chickpea harvest.
This year, Miss Longworth is planting 35 per cent of her total cropping area with chickpeas.
The crops are all being planted in long fallow paddocks as Miss Longworth said it was the only country with adequate moisture.
The healthy price of the crop was definitely appealing and Miss Longworth said with good in crop rain, it would be a great season.
