EXPORTS of Australia’s major pulses have started to slow following a massive early shipment program ahead of Ramadan, and an expected reintroduction of Indian tariffs on chickpeas and lentils on April 1.

Faba beans in Victoria’s Wimmera region being outturned last month for export. Photo: Jonathan Dyer

Setting the tone has been India’s reinstatement of its 33pc tariff on yellow peas, supplied primarily by Canada and Russia, as the Indian Government attempts to lift prices paid to farmers without fuelling food inflation.

After volume selling in the harvest window, the Australian grower is offering little to the market now that much of their chickpea, faba bean, and lentil volume has been sold.

Prices quoted are in Australian dollars per tonne unless stated otherwise.

Chickpeas

The last two bulk vessels of chickpeas in the harvest-shipment period left Brisbane late last month,  and the market has gone quiet.

Chickpeas for April delivery to container packers on southern Queensland’s Darling Downs are trading in limited volume at $880 per tonne, and new-crop bids are being seen at $820/t.

Trade sources indicate few long positions are being held on chickpea, with one source saying a tariff, possibly of 33pc as on yellow peas, is expected from April 1.

This would be around half the tariff that was in effect from 2018, and would still be enough to stymie new-crop planted area, and quash volume chickpea sales.

Queensland growers are seen as being largely sold out of chickpeas, but bulk handlers are believed to hold reasonable stocks.

In New South Wales, bulk handlers and growers too are believed to be holding reasonable stocks.

Faba beans

Growers are seen as well sold on faba beans following a fast-paced and well-priced export program from a crop where volume was limited in the south and bountiful in the north.

Primary Industries and Regions South Australia but SA’s 2024-25 faba bean crop at 117,540t, down 46pc from the 217,425t produced in 2023-24 because of the very dry growing season.

Victoria is also a major producer of faba beans, and its crop was estimated by ABARES in early December at 180,000t, down only 10,000t from the previous year.

A kind season in central and northern NSW saw its production offset SA’s terrible season, with NSW production more than doubling from 165,000t to 350,000t, and Qld’s jumping from 23,000t to 37,000t.

Shipping stems indicate 135,000t of Australian faba beans went to Egypt in February via four cargoes, including the part-cargo loaded in Esperance, Western Australia.

“Egypt is well covered, so I think what we will see from here on is execution and shipment of positions already bought by exporters,” Agri-Oz Exports managing director Francois Darcas said.

Bulk exports are expected to continue into May, and container sales are also ticking along.

Delivered port prices are quoted  at around $660/t in the southern market, and $630/t in the north.

As with chickpeas, trade sources say faba bean cargoes are getting hard to pull together ex Brisbane or Newcastle as large parcels on farm run down.

Domestic stockfeed demand for fabas is minimal, with the market at more than $600/t since harvest pricing  them out of rations.

“There’s nothing coming into the mill,” one source in the southern Australian stockfeed market said.

“Canola meal and soymeal  are cheaper, and soymeal’s probably the better value.”

Lentils

The Ramadan period and active selling from growers between harvest and early February have combined to make recent weeks quiet in the lentil game.

Prices have gotten as high as $900/t delivered Victorian port to fill short positions for container and bulk, but the market has dropped to more like $870t/ now that the pre-Ramadan period has past, and any lentils shipped in the coming week may well incur a tariff.

Australia’s lentil production is primarily in SA and Vic, and the vast majority of SA’s crop is believed to have been shipped, with lentils into India also in the line-up to have their tariff reinstated from April 1.

Trade sources say Victoria could have around 350,000t of lentils left, with a portion of that booked in for shipment to destinations other than India.