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Soggy soil may deter chickpea acres

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Published: March 3, 2011

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A market analyst expects farmers to seed fewer chickpeas this spring, despite dwindling stocks and strong market fundamentals.

“I would say the acres are probably going to be down next (crop) year, just in speaking with farmers,” said Dan Hawkins, marketing adviser with FarmLink Marketing Solutions.

“(Growers) are hesitant to put chickpeas in with that much water underneath them.”

Chickpeas are an indeterminate crop that will keep growing into October or November when there is abundant soil moisture, which exposes the pulse to increased frost risk.

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Hawkins expects as little as 125,000 acres of the crop, down from his estimate of 175,000 acres last year and a five-year average of 235,000 acres. Almost all of the acres will be kabulis.

Agriculture Canada is forecasting 210,000 acres, down from its estimate of 205,000 acres planted last year.

Hawkins said there are bullish signals in chickpea markets.

Canada has exported 37,607 tonnes of the crop through the first five months of the 2010-11 marketing campaign, up from 30,552 tonnes during the same period in the previous crop year.

There will be next to nothing left in the system if that pace of exports is maintained.

Demand prospects appear good, partly because of reports that cold weather damaged Mexico’s kabuli crop in the northwestern states of Sinaloa and Sonora in early February. Chickpea prices rose in Mexico in response to the bad weather.

India’s winter kabuli crop has also suffered early-season damage. According to Stat Publishing, some traders expect 250,000 tonnes of production, down from the 500,000 tonnes anticipated by market bears.

Hawkins said those two potential supply-limiting incidents are behind Canada’s decent kabuli prices.

Bids for seven millimetre kabulis were 28 cents per pound last week, which is four to five cents higher than usually comparable red lentil prices.

Any combination of eight to 10 millimetre kabulis is fetching around 37 cents per lb.

Hawkins said processor consolidation has hurt Canada’s chickpea industry, giving growers fewer options and reducing their marketing clout.

The only way he can envision a resurgence in the crop is if India banned the export of kabuli chickpeas or if processors came back to the trade out of frustration with reduced lentil processing margins.

About the author

Sean Pratt

Sean Pratt

Reporter/Analyst

Sean Pratt has been working at The Western Producer since 1993 after graduating from the University of Regina’s School of Journalism. Sean also has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and worked in a bank for a few years before switching careers. Sean primarily writes markets and policy stories about the grain industry and has attended more than 100 conferences over the past three decades. He has received awards from the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, North American Agricultural Journalists and the American Agricultural Editors Association.

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