Pulse Atlas Data in Focus/
Turkey’s surge in kabuli imports

Pulse Atlas data from Turkey shows kabuli imports climbing way above average levels for the past three years in the first seven months of 2023. With imports in June alone at 25 thousand MT, more than the total imports for the entire year in 2020 and 2022, the total imports in 2023 are set to eclipse the average for the last few years with the total volume as of July sitting at around 78 thousand MT.

Turkey established a 21% import tariff on chickpeas on June 30, meaning traders were careful to make up their volumes in the first half of the calendar year. Nonetheless, July’s import numbers were still higher than usual at 4,550 MT, due to the Turkish 2023 crop yielding lower than last year.  
 

The Pulse Atlas: Turkish numbers

• Total kabuli imports for the first seven months of 2023 are around 78 KMT, compared to 19 KMT, 29.4 KMT and 18.7 KMT in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
• Competitive prices from Russia made it the top destination for Turkish kabuli imports, at 27 KMT in the first seven months of 2023, compared to 7.5 KMT in 2022.
• The rest of the imports are made up by Canada (18 KMT), India (14 KMT), Mexico (6.7 KMT), Argentina (4.5 KMT), USA (3.8 KMT) and Australia (2.3 KMT)
   

Insider Insights

Dr. Andac Kolukisa, Natural Gida

• “In previous years, there was an import ban also but the reason why there was not much import is because the import price was not competitive for the domestic market. This year, Turkey's yields are not as good as last in terms of quality.” 
• “The Turkish crop won't be as good as expected and the percentage of high mms is low. The percentage of 9mm is only around 5% compared to the usual 20%. There are not many high calibers this year. For Turkey, there’s no harm in taking big import volumes as we can sell to the domestic market and re-export.
• “Russian kabulis are the cheapest this year. Last year the average price was $750 and this year average price is at $772 but all chickpea prices have gone up and most others by much more - Mexico for example is $250 higher than last year.” 
• “Another factor is that this year it's more expensive to get money than last year, interest rates have gone up. The market is going up and people are buying chickpeas due to increasing worldwide pulses prices.”