Sam and Jack Rockliff at Dalby in their Kyabra chickpeas last month. The brothers expect to harvest the crop in late October. Photo: CHS Broadbent

AUSTRALIA exported 7079 tonnes of chickpeas and 57,148t of lentils in July, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Both figures represent a fall over the month and year, with chickpeas down 6 per cent from 7562t shipped in June, and 57pc from the 16,632t shipped in July 2019.

Steady demand from Pakistan on around 3200t per month represented Australia’s biggest chickpea market in July, with the United Kingdom continuing in the 900-1000t range the next biggest customer, and Nepal on 842t following.

With Australia just about sold out of chickpeas, no jump in volume is expected before October, when new-crop sourced mostly from central Queensland will start to trickle into the export supply chain.

July 2020 lentil shipments are down 4pc from 59,424t exported in June, and are expected to fall further over August.

As the world’s major lentil market, India in early June announced it was dropping its tariff on Australian lentils to 10pc from 30pc on shipments arriving by 31 August.

The tariff has now reverted to 30pc, and trade sources have said time required for shipment and customs clearance meant shipping to India in August to catch the lower tariff was a risky business.

Table 1: Australian May, June and July 2020 chickpea exports. Source: ABS

Table 2: Australian May, June and July 2020 lentil exports. Source: ABS

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