Add Category
Mung beans are one of the world's smallest vegetables, but there is huge global demand for this tiny crop and Australian farmers are well placed to meet it.
Key points:
- Traditionally used in Asian and Indian cuisine, demand for mung beans is increasing globally
- Australian farmers grow an average of 80,000 tonnes a year, but that number could sustainably double
- Northern Australian growers are located in a good position to make the most of the lucrative crop
Holding roughly the same amount of protein per gram as a T-bone steak, mung beans have been popular in Indian and Asian cuisine for centuries, and are used in pappadums and cold breakfast soups.
Steve Foran, who buys and sells Australian mung beans with agribusiness Woods Group, said he sent little legumes all around the world.
"But a vast majority of our mung beans will end up in China," he said.
"There's a saying in China that loosely translates to, 'Mung beans in the morning keep you cool.'"
Mr Foran said Australian-grown mung beans were barely scratching the sides of the world's growing demand for the plant-protein.
"In a normal year, [Australian growers] produce around 80,000 tonnes [and] we could grow 200,000 tonnes year-on-year at a sustainable production level," he said.
"Our buyers are just demanding Australian mung beans."
Making more mung beans
With mung beans currently trading at roughly three times the price of wheat, Mr Foran said it should not be too difficult to encourage more Australian farmers to grow them.
"They're a good cash crop with a good return," he said.
But mung bean production is being held back by one thing: reliable access to water.
Almost all Australian mung beans are grown in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales during summer, without the help of irrigation, leaving them vulnerable to hot and dry conditions.
Kylie Wenham studies mung beans at the University of Queensland.
She said there was an opportunity to grow Australia's production in the water-rich northern climate, like that of Kununurra's Ord Valley.
"They're well suited to areas like the Ord that has the water so you can irrigate them when temperatures rise," Dr Wenham said.
"They're similar to humans in the way we sweat to cool down — when they've got water in their system they can cool down their leaves that allows them to tolerate higher temperatures."
Roadblocks to northern mung beans
Aaron Macnamara has been growing mung beans in the Ord Valley for almost seven years and is one of the few northern growers to test the crop out.
"We had great success growing them last year at the end of the wet season, followed by a corn crop," he said.
But even with plenty of access to water, mung beans can be tricky to turn a profit from.
"They call them mongrel-beans for a reason," Mr Macnamara said.
"Freight up here is always a big killer in terms of financially and logistically getting them back down to Queensland where they have to be processed."
With this added cost, Mr Macnamara said it was only when his mung beans were quickly followed by a corn crop that they were considered profitable.
But that's something Mr Foran hopes will change soon.
"We'd love to see a container trade start through the Port of Darwin where we could start directly exporting these products from northern Australia [to Asia]," Mr Foran said.
"That's not there at the moment, but I'm that sure as we start to build this industry and start to put some other crops around for the container trade, we'll start to see that evolve to a really sustainable northern marketplace."
Loading