January 21, 2026
We sat down with David Larios, CEO of Mexican chickpea specialist, Aliansa, to talk about the recent chickpea seedings, a drop in demand from North Africa, and why Mexico has healthy stock for the season ahead, despite this year’s reduction in acres.
Seeding dates are delayed on average by around a month nowadays when you compare to how things used to be. These aren’t extraordinary weather phenomena to be honest – It’s just global warming and the dates being pushed back.
Another factor is that Sinaloa farmers prefer to grow corn – it's the most seeded crop in the state and they usually grow 400,000 hectares (ha). Depending on water availability and financial situations, farmers may switch corn areas suitable over to chickpeas. If financing is tight for farmers, then they will move to some hectares over to other commodities. It means that everything is delayed now until the very last minute to see if they can negotiate something with corn or get financing.
Typically Sinaloa will plant around 70,000 ha of chickpeas, which is a huge amount less than corn. The swing of extra hectares can sometimes be 10,000 ha more or 10,000 ha less, or it can be 20,000 ha like last year.
Mexican chickpea hectares are down 25-30% this year, but carry in should help compensate.
Mexico is expected to produce around 150 KMT of chickpeas this season, with steady demand led by Middle Eastern buyers.
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