Australian pulse production is expected to reach historically-high levels this season, as growers capitalise on strong international demand, particularly from India – a major consumer of chickpeas and lentils, according to agribusiness specialist Rabobank.
Speaking on the podcast Racing pulses in Australian and global markets, RaboResearch general manager Australia and New Zealand Stefan Vogel said the 2024/25 Australian pulse harvest – including chickpeas, lentils, faba and mung beans, lupins and field peas – is expected to exceed last year's volumes, due to a higher area planted and despite dry seasonal conditions in some growing areas.
"Until the September frost events in southern growing areas, Australia was poised to deliver the second-highest pulse harvest on record, at just under 4.5 million tonnes," he said. "Harvest yields will be down as a result of the frosts, but there is hopefully still time for post-frost regrowth and recovery in production."
Mr Vogel said chickpeas were the key driver of this increased Australian production – with a notable lift in acreage planted.
Chickpeas
Globally, approximately 16 million tonnes of chickpeas are grown annually – with India usually accounting for roughly 11-12 million tonnes of that total. But this year, Mr Vogel said, India's crop is likely to be only 10-11 million tonnes.
Mr Vogel said Australia holds the second place in this international production ranking.
"And Canada, traditionally the third-largest producer of chickpeas, is recovering from back-to-back dry years. But a rather aggressive newcomer, Russia, re-entered the chickpea market over the last four years, quadrupling its production during that time to levels not far off from Australia's almost record high crop in 2024/25," he said.
Mr Vogel said India, traditionally, has been producing around 70 per cent of the world's chickpeas.
"However, this season, Indian farmers are faced with delivering one of the lowest crops grown in the last five years," he said.
Mr Vogel said in countries that are big producers, and also big importers – such as India – there can be political pressures that impact the market.
"Imports hurt local farmer margins, and there is a large farming population in India. At times of oversupply and low prices, the government has stepped in and tried to support the farmers, introducing import tariffs," he said.
"However, as chickpeas are a food staple in India and, with the reduced local production forecast, the Indian government has recently removed its chickpea import tariff. At times of poor local production volumes and high prices, the government tries to protect consumers by allowing imports."
Mr Vogel said this tariff removal is "good news" for Australian farmers, with an expectation of continued good prices.
"Right now, prices are at record levels in India for chickpeas. And the outlook for the next 12 months is for India to continue to import sizable volumes," he said.
Other major markets for Australian chickpeas include Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, Mr Vogel said.
Lentils
For lentils, Australian farmers are expecting to see a small production increase for the upcoming 2024/25 harvest, assuming the post-frost regrowth in southern regions will be able to deliver some production, Mr Vogel said.
"Another major lentil producer, Canada, is also expecting to see increased production volumes this season – following recent dry years that negatively impacted harvests," he said. "And Australian farmers and exporters can expect to face more competition from Canada in international lentil markets."
Asian markets are the major importers of Australian lentils, Mr Vogel told the podcast.
In 2023/24, he said, Australian exporters had shipped roughly half the lentil crop to China, "with Bangladesh taking almost a quarter, while Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Egypt each took less than 10 per cent".
"And India is a really important market for Australian lentil growers. While chickpea prices remain high in India – we will see consumers become more flexible and switch somewhat between chickpeas, lentils and other pulses in an attempt to limit the impact of those high chickpea prices on household budgets."
This increased Indian demand is well timed, Mr Vogel said. "We need that extra Indian demand to support Australian prices going into harvest, as both Australia and Canada are forecast to deliver bigger crops this season," he said.
Field peas
For the international field pea market, China is the dominant import player, Mr Vogel said. And Canada has traditionally produced the majority of the field pea volume shipped to China. "But Russia's exports to China have increased quickly since 2023, once phytosanitary issues were resolved and China allowed for the import of Russian peas," he said.
"Chinese buyers use the field pea starch in the making of noodles. And as a by-product, you are left with quite a bit of protein, resulting in China being one of the largest pea protein producers in the world, which can be used as a foundation for building alternative meat. As a quite cheap and competitive producer of pea protein, China is supplying alternative protein manufacturers around the world."
Compared with Russian and Canadian pea production volumes, Australia is a "rather small" producer, Mr Vogel said. "China last season imported around 40 per cent of the Australian field pea exports, with South East Asian nations importing most of the rest," he told the podcast.
Mr Vogel said as the Chinese market is dominated by Russian and Canadian field pea imports, Australian exporters need to continue to look to other Asian countries, such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, to take up some of the volume.
Global freight challenges
While, traditionally, Australian pulses have been exported in containers, "sky high" container freight rates due to supply chain disruptions during the COVID years had seen a pivot to bulk shipping, Mr Vogel said.
"As container freight rates increased by up to eight times, pulse exporters swapped to bulk shipping to destination markets," he said.
"While container rates had eased from those historic highs, the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea put pressure on the global shipping sector in 2024 and container freight rates have risen to very high levels again."
In addition to the increased costs, Mr Vogel said, exporters have been struggling to access the required number of containers and manage time delays.
"As bulk freight rates have barely moved, we can expect Australian pulses to continue to be exported this way for at least the next 12 months," he said.
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