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Pressure is mounting to get Australia's chickpea harvest into India before tariffs that could cost exporters more than half their profit kick back in.
Exporter GrainCorp has loaded the first shipment of 31,000 tonnes of central Queensland-grown chickpeas in the port of Gladstone, about 500 kilometres north of Brisbane,
It will make a stop further north in Mackay, where more chickpeas will be loaded before leaving for Asia.
But with the suspension expected to be lifted at the end of March, the industry is now pushing to get one of the largest winter crops harvested and onto boats.
Graincorp supply chain head Josh Connell said it should arrive within a month.
"We're pretty confident in the ability to deliver by that timeframe and make sure the customer gets what they need," he said.
It comes as grain handlers in New South Wales voted to stop work after negotiations with GrainCorp on a new pay agreement broke down.
Chickpeas being unloaded to be exported to India at the port of Gladstone. (ABC News: Megan Hughes)
Largest exporter meets largest consumer
India is the biggest consumer and producer of chickpeas in the world, but farmers there have delivered one of the lowest crops in five years due to bad weather.
To secure supply, the Indian government suspended tariffs on imports in May, which caused prices to surge to more than $1,000 a tonne, considered to be an exceptionally good price for chickpeas.
Industry marketing body Grains Australia's pulse council chair Peter Wilson said the normal tariffs, which started at the equivalent of 33 per cent but had risen to 66 per cent before the suspension, had effectively eliminated the market for Australia.
"It [the suspension] will increase competition for Australian chickpeas, which are already exported into other important markets including Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan," Mr Wilson said earlier this year.
The ship will carry 31,000 tonnes of chickpeas to India. (ABC News: Megan Hughes)
As a result, production in Australia also surged, with ABARES September crop report forecasting an increase of 171 per cent on last year, to 1.3 million tonnes.
"If realised, this will be the second-highest chickpea harvest on record," the report said.
This is the first time Australia, the largest exporter of chickpeas in the world, has had tariff-free access to India since 2017.
Rabobank research general manager Stefan Vogel said Canada was the next largest producer of chickpeas, but that crop was recovering from back-to-back dry years and Russia, while aggressively planting, was not yet producing the same volumes as Australia.
"Right now, prices are at record levels in India for chickpeas," he said.
"The outlook for the next 12 months is for India to continue to import sizeable volumes."
Kabuli chickpeas are one of two varieties grown in Australia. (ABC Kimberley: Courtney Fowler)
Weather worries as demand rises
With access to India reinstated, the race is on to plant and harvest a large, good-quality crop of chickpeas ahead of the looming deadline.
But Mr Connell said growing and moving such a large crop was challenging, and growers were closely watching the skies.
"Everyone's worried about storms," he said.
"Exceptional price or not, you just want to get it off before the weather gets to it."
Chickpea crops in parts of southern Queensland have been damaged by wild storms. (Supplied: Brendan Taylor)
For some central Queensland growers, the blow came early, with winter frosts leading to quality downgrades, though many have since recovered to meet export quality standards.
Others have already contended with wild storms, bringing with them strong winds, rain and hail.
Farmer group Agforce's grains president Brendan Taylor said some southern Queensland farms had recorded massive crop losses.
"Heartbreaking, really, because literally the headers were just about to move or had just started in those paddocks," he said.
Mr Taylor said the chickpeas were hit while they were still green but starting to ripen.
"That may have limited some of the damage in the chickpeas," he said.
"If they'd been ripe, they would have suffered more damage."
The chickpeas are being loaded in Gladstone with more being loaded in Mackay. (ABC News: Megan Hughes)
Meanwhile, Mr Connell said transporting the crop from farm to the port had also proven challenging.
He said they had to apply for import permits to India that had unique fumigation and phytosanitary requirements, source heavy productivity vehicles to take the crop to ports and apply to the state government to get increased access to key ports all to meet this deadline.
Despite these challenges, he said quality remained strong.
Josh Connell says India has unique phytosanitary and fumigation requirements. (ABC News: Megan Hughes)
In NSW the harvest has just begun, and GrainCorp expects it to ramp up over the next week.
But late on Wednesday, the Australian Workers Union announced handlers in that state would start work stoppages in November, part of protected industrial action approved by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
GrainCorp has previously said it was "disappointed" industrial action was proposed before conciliation discussions in the pay dispute.
Mr Connell remained hopeful all of the crop could be sent before the deadline. However, he said it was likely not all of it would arrive in time.