DRY conditions and disease issues in Chinese mung beans has resulted in strong demand for the Australian crop, brightening the price prospects for growers, providing they can get enough rain to squeeze in a late summer crop.
The spring crop is looking good, but crop prospects have taken a huge dive from the expected record crop at planting last year.
The industry had hoped for a national crop of 200,000 hectares following good planting moisture, according to Pulse Australia industry development agronomist Paul McIntosh, Toowoomba.
Australian farmers grew 125,000ha in the 2015-16 season, harvesting about 150,000 tonnes.
“Earlier in the season, mung beans were looking very promising, but that area is back to between 30,000ha and 50,000ha now,” Mr McIntosh.
“I had calls about mung beans from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Eyre Peninsula earlier in the season. A lot of seed companies have sold more seed than ever but some of the crop has been wiped out and some seed is still sitting in the shed.”
Mr McIntosh said buyers were very positive about Australian beans thanks to the lack of water and disease issues in the Chinese crop.
The market has jumped more than $300 a tonne since early summer, when manufacturing beans were fetching $850, processing beans made $950/t and growers were getting $1050/t for number one processing beans.
Mr McIntosh said mung beans were now trading at $1200/t for manufacturing, $1300/t for processing beans and $1400/t for number ones.
”Everybody is short of top grade, or number one, processing beans,” Mr McIntosh said.
Most early spring crops in Queensland have been harvested, while most crops in northern NSW are being desiccated. Crops in the Riverina region are podding and flowering.
It’s been a varied season across both states.
”We had fair moisture in spring then a cold snap in October and mung beans don’t like the cold, then we were into a hot and dry summer,” Mr McIntosh said.
The lack of in-crop rain and subsequent soil moisture means some Queensland growers won’t have the opportunity to plant a second summer crop.
“There’s not much of a second plant this season,” Mr McIntosh said.
“Growers in central Queensland can plant until end of February though so there's still an opportunity for a late crop there and maybe in western NSW. We need planting rain and a couple of top up bits to keep the mung beans going, but planting opportunities can change very quickly so we may see more beans planted.”
Late planting pays off for Bective crop
HEAT hasn’t had a huge impact on the 50-hectare crop of Jade variety mung beans at “Glenfield”, Bective.
The crops is in its late podding stage, about four weeks off desiccation and harvest.
Landmark Tamworth agronomist Casey Onus said the crop was doing well considering the recent heatwave.
“Mung beans are one of the more resilient crops,” Miss Onus said.
“They’ve only really storm rain but they’re still looking good.”
The beans were planted at Christmas with a good subsoil moisture despite little moisture in the topsoil.
“A lot of people missed the opportunity to plant.”
Miss Onus said the grower hadn’t made marketing plans yet, but most growers were looking to forward sell with the current high prices.
Australian Mungbean Association president Mark Schmidt said 90 per cent of the crop would be exported to the main markets of India, China and Vietnam.
Australia exported 150,000 tonnes last season but the industry isn’t expecting anywhere that this year.
“An early estimate is 30,000t to 50,000t,” Mr Schmidt said.
“Based on seasonal conditions, our crop size is smaller and yields have been very low due to hot, dry conditions. Traditionally we’d be seeing yields of one to 1.2 tonnes per hectare, but this year we’ve seen anywhere from 0.2t/ha to 0.5t/ha.
“No rain and hot conditions affected yield and also quality. We’re seen mung beans of low to good manufacturing quality with a minimal amount of processing mung beans coming in.”