Australian pulse industry leaders have hailed the Indian government's decision on the weekend to scrap tariffs on Australian chickpea imports until March 31 next year as the biggest news for the Aussie chickpea industry since India first imposed the tariffs in 2017.
Prices for Australian desi chickpeas have soared to as high as $1150 a tonne on the back of the news.
"This is a really big deal for our desi chickpea producers, India is both the biggest producer and biggest consume of desis so to have unrestricted access to the market is fantastic news," said Grains Australia pulse council chairman Peter Wilson.
"We think this will be great news both for Australian producers and Indian consumers," he said.
India dominated Australian chickpea exports until 2017 when the Indian government implemented tariffs of 33 per cent that then rose to 66pc making it practically impossible for Australian exporters to compete.
Mr Wilson said the Indian government had been watching worsening prospects for its local crop and had made the decision to allow imports to come in to ensure supply.
He said it would bolster Australian prices for both old and new crop chickpeas.
Sam Sloane, director of brokering at IKON Commodities, backed up this statement.
"Both old and new crop prices have been firming for a few months now in anticipation of the tariff removal," he said.
"With the announcement over the weekend and subsequent trade activity, prices for current crop shipments are up over $250 a tonne and new crop up $200/t over the space of just over three months."
It means local desi prices are at around $1150/t for old crop and $1100/t new crop delivered container terminal (DCT).
Given good subsoil moisture and a cereal heavy rotation in recent years the industry was already banking on a markedly larger chickpea crop than last year, with some private forecasts in excess of a million tonnes, near double the official Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) figure of 531,000 tonnes for the 2023-24 crop.
Mr Wilson said with the planting window well and truly still open in the desi chickpea heartland of the northern cropping zone he expected more growers to look at bolstering their plantings.
However, he said the eventual plant could be constrained by logistical matters such as seed and seed treatment availability.
"It appears seed and inputs will be fairly hard to get hold of given the demand."
Mr Wilson said the removal of the tariffs would help kickstart the Australian desi chickpea industry which has struggled due to a combination of seasonal conditions and market access since cracking the 2 million tonne mark in 2016-17.
"This year we have certainty about demand and good moisture levels, there also should be less disease inoculum about than other years given we haven't seen really big plants in recent years, so it is set up well for now."
Unlike other pulse commodities where there are major competitors, Australia is the key to the world desi chickpea trade.
"Other nations like Canada are big in lentils and yellow peas but their cropping season, where the crops are flowering into shorter days and colder weather is not so suitable for desis."
He said Australian traders would continue to supply the other major markets for the legume, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and the UAE, but added India would a major focus.
"I expect we might see some shuffling about of supplies, Pakistan is mainly a milling market so maybe they would be happy with no 2 grade product while the no 1s will head to India.
Mr Wilson said the Indian government decision was reward for hard work from Grains Australia.
"This welcome decision by the Indian Government shows the value of continued, respectful government and industry engagement with a highly valued trading partner."
Grains Australia, with support from the Australian government, was represented in New Delhi earlier this year at 'Pulses 2024', the annual conference of the Global Pulse Confederation and a major event on the global pulse calendar.
Mr Wilson said the event provided opportunities to communicate with Indian government and industry representatives, and a brochure Australian Pulses - Partnering with India was produced for the conference outlining details of Australia's valued pulse trading relationship with India.