Lucrative Indian chickpea market reopens for Australian farmers with 10 per cent tariff

Mervyn Bourne has been a farmer for 35 years, but this is the first time he has gone all in on chickpeas.

Encouraged by a stabilised trade relationship with India, the central Queensland grower is planting all 1,300 hectares of his farm to the pulse crop, for one good reason.

"The money," Mr Bourne said.

When deciding what to plant for the winter season on his property at Kilcummin, about 280 kilometres south-west of Mackay, Mr Bourne would normally spread his risk across crops like wheat, barley, oat and chickpeas.

For the first time since 2017, the crop known to be reliable in the field is also a sure bet in the world's biggest chickpea market.

While tariff-free access to India may be a thing of the past, the renewed access coupled with rising prices means growers like Mr Bourne are confident to roll the dice.

On and off again market

India was the choice destination for Australian chickpea exporters for years, enjoying tariff-free access to the world's largest consumer of the legume.

But in 2017, amid growing pressure to stabilise prices and support domestic farmers, India introduced large tariffs on chickpea imports, effectively killing the trade.

Australian production plummeted — that year the crop was more than 2 million tonnes, but by 2023 it had shrunk to 500,000 tonnes.

Even Australia's free trade agreement with India signed in 2022 failed to reinstate the trade.

The industry scrambled to diversify its markets, and now exports chickpeas to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Jebel Ali in the Middle East.

Then, in May 2024, India made a surprise announcement — Australia could once again send tariff-free chickpeas, but only if they arrived before the end of March 2025.

The south Asian country was desperate to secure supply as it faced one of its lowest crops in five years due to bad weather.

The announcement came just as Australian farmers were deciding what to plant for winter, kicking off a race to get crops to the sub-continent by the tight deadline.

Prices skyrocketed, and despite wild storms, logistics issues and worker strikes, Australia's Pulse Council chair Peter Wilson said about 2 million tonnes made it in before the deadline.

"They were hard, they were well filled, they were a beautiful colour."

India eventually reinstated its tariffs but not to the level they were before — offering 10 per cent rather than the 66 per cent that had effectively been in place.

'Open book consideration'

Mr Wilson said planting conditions were ideal in the northern growing area in Queensland thanks to a wet summer, which had growers' decision-making.

"It's been an open book consideration because there's been adequate profile moisture," he said.

Mr Wilson said while prices had eased from last season's highs of $1,100 a tonne, they were still sitting strong at $700 a tonne.

On top of a positive economic environment, Mr Bourne said his chickpeas were also benefiting from good weather.

"We're looking very good, probably one of the best ever [years], actually," he said.

"We've got ample moisture; the first lot of chickpeas we planted are just starting to get a nice foliage on them.

"Hopefully, we can get a dry October and November at harvest time."

Rhys Daniels has a mixed cropping and cattle operation more than 100 kilometres south of Mr Bourne's, at Capella.

This winter, he is growing wheat and chickpeas, but says he understands why Mr Bourne has gone all in.

"It's been a pretty blessed year really, we've had lots of rain when other people haven't," he said.

Mr Daniels's family has grown the legume since the 1990s, and he said they had seen some great years.

"2016 was a stand-out year with record yields and a record price," he said.

"It really redefined what we actually could grow out of chickpea, the price skyrocketed to $1100 a tonne."

"It was pretty exciting."

While Queensland is starting off strong, Mr Wilson said Western Australia was doing "OK" and Victoria and South Australia were suffering with drought.

"Conditions were still very, very dry there, most of the crop went in dry," he said.

"We've had a couple of shots of rain through the south-east now, crops are out of the ground, but they're juvenile and they just don't have a lot of moisture underneath them."

He said harvesting was still weeks away.

"Lots of things need to go well for us to have good outcomes," he said.

"I think the conditions are set up for another decent year."