Australian Crop Conditions.
Chick peas:
A large area of the Queensland crop has been lost due to rain damage and a lot of contracts have been washed out. The Crop in northern New South Wales has suffered from heavy disease problems and harvest will be delayed until late November. This will place a lot of pressure on the logistics and November contracts.
Lentils:
We have looked at a lot of crops recently in South Australia and Victoria and apart from some disease pressure in crops on Yorke Peninsula they look excellent in both states. Industry sources are predicting a harvest of between 280,000 to 340,000 mt. The latter would be an all time record. Despite the large expected crop, farmer selling at the moment is minimal as there are fears of a wet harvest and consequent damage. Prices are steady with offers around US$820 for Nugget type and bids around US$790 into the main markets.
The most important issue to be aware of is that harvest is going to be at least 3-4 weeks late if the weather is normal and another 2-3 weeks on top of that if the wet weather materializes.
Faba beans:
As with most of the other pulses Faba bean crops are looking very good . The latest Pulse Australia forecast put the crop at around 265,000 and hopefully increased yield in the southern states will compensate for any losses in NSW. Market is steady with offers around US$430 into Egypt for FD bulk Dec/Jan shipment and bids US$10-15 less. . As with lentils the faba crop in S.A. & Victoria are going to be 3-4 weeks late. The broad bean crop also is also going to be late with harvesting not expected to start until mid January.
