Canadian chickpea producers are likely to reap a larger 2019 crop than previously expected, but poor prices may limit sales at harvest time.
After being planted into drought conditions in the spring, enough moisture finally arrived across the Prairies to bring yields back up to around average, said Colin Young of Midwest Grain in Moose Jaw. Meanwhile, world markets are also well supplied which is keeping a lid on prices. Turkey is just wrapping up a good harvest, and have been aggressive sellers into the global market.
“Until these aggressive countries have sold their stocks, our choice is to compete at very low levels or hold and wait for our turn,” Young said, adding he expects the market will remain under pressure until Christmas.
Canada No. 2 or better Kabuli chickpeas are currently priced in the 21 to 22 cents/lb area, which is well below the 30 cents farmers would more ideally like to see, Young said. However, chickpeas can store well, which means actual farmer deliveries will depend on the economics for each individual farm, with ebbs and flows in the market expected over the next few months.
According to Young, some of the most advanced Prairie chickpea crops were desiccated and ready to harvest, but recent moisture across Saskatchewan will cause delays. Still, the majority of the crop is still about a month away from harvest – later than the past two years.
Agriculture Canada is currently projecting a 260,000-tonne 2019 Canadian chickpea crop, down from 311,000 a year earlier. Statistics Canada’s first survey-based production estimate will be released Aug. 28.
Overall, the moisture that helped save yields in early July also resulted in disease problems for about a third of the crop, according to Young. Those fields recovered somewhat, but will see reductions in yield and quality. An additional one-third of the acres were decent, but not spectacular, while the remaining third was quite good.
More recent rains in the last week of August will lead to decent seed caliber, although may also cause some new quality issues.
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