MarketsFarm – Just like nearly all crops in Western Canada, chickpeas were not immune to drought conditions causing reduced yields.
Approximately 64,000 tonnes of chickpeas were grown across the country for the 2021-22 marketing year, compared to the 214,000 tonnes grown in the previous year, according to last month’s production report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Despite varying yields in Saskatchewan, Colin Young, manager of Mid-West Grain Ltd. in Moose Jaw, Sask. said there were some bright spots in this year’s harvest.
“The west half of (Saskatchewan) was extremely poor. Anything of the eastern half had disappointing yields to below-average, but not a complete failure. Overall, the aggregate crop was the lowest recorded average yield of chickpeas we have ever grown,” Young said, adding that most Kabulis grown were seven to eight millimetres in diameter. “Quality in drought conditions tends to be excellent. So what we’ve produced was a small crop of small caliber, high quality chickpeas…Very, very light supply and very good quality.”
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While prices have been steady to three cents per pound lower in Western Canada over the past month, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire, the price of chickpeas is still up between 19 to 27 cents from last year. Prices have also been further affected by shipping delays and end destinations already having plenty of crop in storage. Young said the result is an impasse where growers are waiting on prices to rise again before selling.
“The bids to the farm gate have escalated higher than the market will support,” he explained. “The destination markets still have cheaper grain looming and they’re not financially stable and healthy in their economies…Destinations don’t need to purchase.”
Young added that 62-cent grower priced chickpeas would land in most destinations at C$1,340 per tonne. Destination markets are purchasing alternate origins at a range between C$1,000 and C$1,100 per tonne.
“In the short term, (Canada) is well-supplied. The buyers in the face of escalating prices are choosing to wait to consume their carryover stock and hope they can purchase something cheaper to carry them through,” he said. “If the market is going to move, it’s going to be between December and March. That window should see destination stocks depleted and then needing to repurchase, more willing to pay a higher price because they don’t have cheaper inventory in hand.”
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