Chickpea market looking strong

(Resource News International) –– Chickpea producers in Saskatchewan are pleased with the market for their product, thanks to what appears to be a shortage of supply.

Colin Young of R. Young Seeds at Mortlach, Sask. said a couple of top-producing countries will be having smaller yields this year.

“It looks like Turkey has had a bit of a production problem, and Russia with their drought,” Young said. “For the next two-month period, the chickpea market is looking very firm.”

While the market is strong, the quality of the peas is still a big question for producers. Disease pressure has been ranging from moderate to heavy, as a number of fields sustained severely high moisture, he said.

Crops with disease could have a higher green count, but that wouldn’t have too big of an effect on producers’ bottom lines, he added.

“Having a green count in it is likely, but it’s not too big of a deal because we do a lot of colour sorting,” he said. “Even if they are off grade, they are still very marketable because of the strong market right now.”

Another concern producers face right now is the lateness of the harvest.

“We’ll be eating Thanksgiving turkey about the same time we will be harvesting chick peas,” Young said.

The late harvest is because of the late start, he said, with most of the crop being planted in late May.

Chickpeas continue to flower and pod throughout the season if they get moisture — which they’ve had — and they usually require 120 days to properly mature.

“With the sustained moisture, they’re just going to keep growing,” he said. “To get the whole field at one particular stage is going to be a bit of a problem.”

The total crop, Young predicted, would be about 100,000 tonnes in Saskatchewan, and unlike last year, there would be little to no carryover of the crop heading into the 2011 crop year.

Ten-millimetre kabuli chickpeas can be brought to the elevator for 32.5 cents per pound, while desi chickpeas are bringing 25.5 cents/lb.