Desi chickpea prices are nearly double what they were last year and approaching historic highs.
As of Aug. 23, Saskatchewan processing plants were paying 18.63 cents per pound for the crop, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture. That compares to 9.83 cents a year ago.
The price is creeping up on the 10-year high of 21 cents per lb. reached in October 2002.
Colin Young, manager of Young Seeds, a Mortlach, Sask., chickpea processor, said prices have risen based on reports of a poor crop in India, the world’s largest producer and consumer of desi chickpeas.
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He expects desis to be a hot seller straight off the combine this year because farmers will be looking for a good cash crop.
Young doesn’t expect the price to budge much off the current level based on his read of international demand.
“I’ve been quoting out trying to pay the grower 20 cents and I haven’t had any response. Right now it looks like 18 cents is the price that works.”
Based on early harvest results, yields will be average to above average and the crop is of excellent quality, said Young.
Farmers around Mortlach are getting 30 bushels per acre on their small calibre chickpeas, although it’s a different story south of Swift Current where yields are coming in at 10-15 bu. per acre.
“Even with the high price they’re just going to cover the cost of production,” he said.
Statistics Canada is estimating 163,200 tonnes of total chickpea production, up 57 percent over last year’s 103,900 tonne crop.
Stat Publishing predicts 37,000 tonnes of that will be desis, which will be snapped up by buyers in the Indian subcontinent along with 30,000 tonnes of other small calibre chickpeas.
The remaining 96,000 tonnes of kabulis is not a big enough crop to destabilize world markets as occurred in 2000 and 2002, according to the specialty crop newsletter.
But one analyst expects there will be at least some harvest-time pressure on prices. Louis Dreyfus Canada said despite Canada being a relatively minor producer of chickpeas, the better-than-expected yields could weigh on prices as could the anticipated heavy volume of post-harvest sales.
Grain bins in southern Saskatchewan were full of durum heading into harvest so farmers will likely be looking to unload their chickpeas right off the combine.
“The small spike in desi chickpea prices seen recently is also likely to attract a pickup in farmer selling, which in a small volume market can eliminate premiums quickly,” said the grain company in its Aug. 21 market update.
One side benefit of high desi chickpea prices is the pressure it will exert on yellow peas, a crop that is readily substituted for desis in key consuming regions like India.
