Despite the significant effect of drought on Australia's pulse production, Queensland's first chickpeas of the season have been loaded onto a ship in north Queensland, ready for export.
The chickpeas were harvested in the Central Highlands district, the only region on the east coast to get a crop due to ongoing insufficient rainfall.
Pulse Australia's northern region industry development manager Paul McIntosh said while some growers in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales planted crops, they withered before reaching maturity.
"[Chickpeas in NSW] were planted on a prayer and a whiff of moisture but they didn't come to anything much at all in that area, so thank goodness for central Queensland growers," Mr McIntosh said.
"It's great that we've got a boatload of our good quality chickpeas from central Queensland to go to the Bangladeshis.
"Australia as an export country exported nearly 2 million tonnes of desi chickpeas in the 2016 shipping season [but] in 2019 we're not going to get anywhere near that with the crops we've got so far."
Journey to Bangladesh
Harvested pulses are transported by train and trucks off the farms and to the port of Mackay, where they undergo final checks before being loaded onto a ship.
Import permits to Bangladesh require the chickpeas to be checked for quality, as well as phytosanitary and biosecurity standards, before they leave the country.
Jeff Moodie, port operations manager for Central Queensland Ports, said the inspections were completed by authorised officers who looked for insects and biosecurity risks.
"The grain is always tested before it gets into the silos and is fumigated, so we shouldn't get any surprises," he said.
"But if we do, we have the ability to stop the grain before it gets in the vessel [if needed]."
Mr Moodie oversees the loading of the ship, which drops roughly 700 tonnes of chickpea per hour into the vessel.
"There have been some good crops around," he said.
"We've got about 60,000 tonnes of chickpea booked to go out with this vessel and another two vessels in January and February, but it is a bit quiet this year."
Impact of international tariffs ongoing
When news broke of India imposing a 30 per cent chickpea and lentil tariff in late 2017, it had an immediate impact on pulse growers that is continuing to influence Australia's exports.
"In a normal year we probably would have started a couple of months earlier, when the Indian markets open, but they're pretty much closed down at the moment due to tariffs," Mr Moodie said.
Mr McIntosh said the impact of the Indian tariffs had led to Australia needing to look for alternate markets.
"The Bangladeshis have been good customers of ours over the years, and they've assumed a much more important [role] — as well as Pakistan — than the Indian markets are now," he said.
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