Market Updates

Exclusive Pulse Atlas data presents a strong picture for the last five years of Australian pulses. Overall yield has increased significantly since 2019, with harvested acreage remaining stable for the last three years in a row but production growing. The recent success has been a result of strong yields and a rise in lentil production and exports, although a return to trendline yields is set to curb the upward trend of recent years. 

Data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) suggests that while high acreage is set to continue for lentils and chickpeas, fabas, lupins, and peas will decrease and yields of all pulse classes are to drop significantly compared to 2022/23’s all round strong harvest — particularly in lentils. The 2022 red lentil harvest of 1078 MT was the largest over a six-year period but according to ABARES, 2023 lentil production is expected to drop 506 KMT. 

The Pulse Atlas: Australian numbers 

• 2020, 2021 and 2022 produced 1.77 MMT, 1.31 MMT and 2.11 MMT of pulses respectively. 
• Harvested area has been above 1.2 MMT since 2020.
• In 2021 & 2022, Australian pulse acreage yielded 1.81 t/ha and 1.71 t/ha respectively. The last bumper crop in 2017 yielded 1.46 t/ha.

Insider insights

Peter Wilson, Wilson International Trade & Australian Pulse Council

• 'The crops already in the ground have average to above average conditions. We’re alert but not alarmed about El Niño - if it rains, it's money in the bank, but even if it dries out we should still have enough moisture in the southern soils to bring us home.' 

• ‘I wonder about lentils, because I think we could see an increase in South Australia and a decrease in Victoria, which did lose a lot of lentils last year. Lentil area could end up the same, but we had enormous yields in many parts of southern Australia last year, and all the estimates are doing is taking everything back to a trend line after those big outlier yields.’

• 'Lupins are probably coming back to trendline yields, which would give a lower yield per acre. Clearly ABARES is also of the view that they're going to lose some area to competing crops like cereals, wheat, or maybe even canola. It's a 400/500,000 ton loss in expected output, which probably counts for close to 75/80% of the aggregate loss.'
  
  

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