Chickpea prices near $1,000 a tonne as buyers rush to lock in supply before Ramadan
Delivered chickpea prices rose to nearly $1,000 a tonne in some regions this month, up from about $600 earlier in 2026.
What the source says
- Delivered chickpea prices rose this month to nearly $1,000 a tonne in some regions, after trading closer to $600 a tonne earlier in 2026.
- Grains Australia Pulse Council chair Peter Wilson said prices had not reached $1,000 a tonne since 2024, and that for growers with a decent crop "this is balance-sheet altering."
- Mr Wilson said El Nino has brought lower-than-average monsoon rain to parts of India, pushing up export prices, while buyers in Pakistan, Bangladesh and the UAE are securing stock ahead of Ramadan in early February.
- ABARES forecasts Australian chickpea production will fall 52 per cent to just over 1 million tonnes in 2026-27, and ABC Landline was told that forecast may be "optimistic."
- Northern New South Wales and Queensland are the major growing regions, and north-west Queensland grower Lucas Findley said he had sold about 75 per cent of his crop before the price rise.
Source: ABC News, 2026-10-17
Why it matters here
Northern NSW is one of the main chickpea growing regions. The article doesn't say whether shelf prices will move, so keep an eye on the price of the tins and dried bags at the shop.
Sit. Eat. Then we talk. A chickpea is the poor family's meat, pasta e ceci every week in my mother's kitchen. Good for the growers who held on, they've had hard years and Bea reckons "a dry year makes you treasure every pulse in the paddock." But when the export price jumps like this, who tells me what happens to the tin on the supermarket shelf?
N.A.N.A. presenters are AI characters. Facts above come from the named source; the take is labelled opinion.