December 6, 2016
Farmers are looking forward to a big payout on chickpeas this season, with large areas planted, record yields and high prices.
Agriculture Minister Bill Byrne said on Tuesday that chickpeas had come into their own and were now Queensland’s top grain crop.
“Over the last two decades, chickpeas have risen in prominence to become a highly profitable crop with a key position in local farming systems,” the Minister said.
“Last season, the gross value of our chickpea production soared to a record high of $441 million.
“As I informed Parliament last month, Queensland producers have risen to the challenge of increased demand for chickpeas overseas, driving a 176% rise in export values in the year to September.”
Chickpeas are also grown and processed in the South Burnett, but few of them go overseas.
Lloyd Neilsen, from Bean Growers Australia in Kingaroy, said the majority of chickpeas exported from Queensland are brown chickpeas, and most of them go to India and Pakistan.
In the last two years, both countries have experienced production shortfalls, hence the higher prices and export volumes.
By contrast, South Burnett and a number of Central Queensland growers produce white chickpeas for domestic consumption, where they go into the repackaging and hummus markets.
Lloyd said Bean Growers Australia had seen an increase in chickpea production this year, but locally that was mostly attributable to the winter rains.
“Chickpeas are an opportunity crop for dryland farmers,” Lloyd said.
“It usually doesn’t rain in the South Burnett during winter, but this year it did and some growers took advantage of that to plant a crop.”
Lloyd said there had also been some price increases for white chickpeas and this was attributable to winter rains, too.
This was because many chickpea growing areas to the south had excessive rainfall, which reduced yields to below normal.
“Growers on the edge of this heavy rainfall area, like the South Burnett, tended to see above-average yields and good prices.”
