CENTRAL Queensland chickpea producers are reaping the benefits of the Australian chickpea trade’s impatience to get its hands on new crop supplies, with prices of up to $1100 a tonne on offer in Australia’s most northerly chickpea growing region.
Exports are going out of the Port of Mackay but the chickpeas are also making their way a vast distance south with reports that some CQ chickpeas were going to packing houses around Dubbo in central NSW.
Pulse Australia chief executive Nick Goddard said while he had not heard of such massive freight journeys but said given business had been written at lower levels in central NSW earlier in the season it still may be economic to move the chickpeas down even with freight costs of up to $150/t.
He cautioned the high prices were most likely a premium for immediate delivery and would likely dip back in line with world parity once larger volumes of the Australia crop come online.
He said the industry was gearing up for logistical issues given the delays to harvest in areas such as the Darling Downs.
“Central Queensland really is the focus at present and they are in the midst of probably their best season ever, which is good for the industry as it is the only place with crop coming online when traditionally the harvest will have pushed further south.”
Peter Hart, of the processing business Grainhart, based at Oakey on the Darling Downs, said the slow season meant the southern Queensland packing houses would be later to get into full swing in spite of strong bookings.
“It will just be a matter of waiting until it is ready.”
The situation may be different from the NSW – Queensland border and south where crop losses are more prevalent.
However, Mr Hart said he believed there would still be the crop to cover booked business.
“Even with large scale washouts there are still a lot of areas with reasonable crop.”
The late crop may also cause issues in terms of contract execution with crops potentially not ready within the specified delivery window.
Grain Trade Australia chief executive Pat O’Shannassy said it was important to use GTA contracts to have easy access to GTA’s arbitration process should disagreements arise.
Chris Hood, Grainx, Allora, on the southern Darling Downs, said the pressure would be on the packing and logistics sector to fill orders in a shorter time frame given exporters were keen to execute shipments from Australia immediately after harvest and in the early months of the new year to fill a gap in world markets.
“It could get interesting if things start to come in all at once.”
Wayne Newton, president of the AgForce grains section, said he believed there would be reasonable yields on the Darling Downs, but added harvest was some way off.
“The crops have reflowered following recent rain so we’re probably at least a month away from harvest really kicking into gear.”
He said croppers close to the NSW border had not fared so well.
“I’ve heard of quite a few growers biting the bullet and washing out their crops, which has also contributed in running the price up.”
“In other areas where crop damage is not as severe I think growers are just waiting to see how things play out, particularly if they have contracts written at higher levels, meaning wash out costs will not be so high.”
Mr Goddard said many northern NSW had abandoned their chickpea crops and had sprayed them out in order to plant cotton at the optimum time to capitalise on the full profile of soil moisture.
He said Pulse Australia was also keeping a close eye on the impact of excess moisture on the south’s high value pulse crop: lentils.
“At present, we haven’t really heard, certainly the crops are under disease pressure, but equally there has been some drying weather over the past week which will help.
“The next fortnight is going to be critical, but we are hopefully that while there will be yield losses there will also be plenty of good yields.”
He also said he hoped faba bean crops would be strong.
“We’re a little more confident with faba beans, they are more tolerant of excessive moisture than other crops.”