Australia: Trucks tight as north moves massive crop

A shortage of trucks to run chickpeas and faba beans from the bumper harvest into port has emerged as a major short-term constraint on the northern supply chain.

Offsetting this is support from the rail system, which is running trains into one Brisbane and two Newcastle terminals, and a rain-enforced slowdown in some areas.

As the peak of the northern chickpea and faba bean harvest passes, activity is starting to ramp up on lentils in the southern region, where most yields are coming in well below average, as expected after the harsh growing season.

Late to the party are southern faba beans, and their limited new-crop availability has seen the southern delivered port market rise to around $80 per tonne above over the well-supplied delivered Brisbane market.

Rough estimates for eastern Australia’s three major pulses stand at around 1.5 million tonnes for chickpeas, 1.1Mt for lentils, and 520,000t for faba beans.

All prices quoted are Australian dollars per tonne and less otherwise indicated.

Chickpeas delivered up-country packer or accumulator are trading at up to $815/t, from around $950/t in early October, but up from the low of $720/t seen late October.

Queensland’s chickpea harvest is nearing completion, while northern NSW is roughly halfway through.

Some growers, particularly those a long way from port or major accumulation points, are storing their chickpeas on farm, at least until they finish harvest of all crops.

With the chickpea export program now running at full tilt out of Brisbane and Newcastle, growers and traders are willing sellers, even at prices closer to $750/t.

GrainCorp has already loaded a train at Moree to take chickpeas to one of its two 30,000t cargoes booked to load at its Newcastle terminal this month, and Qube at Coonamble is sending trains to its adjacent facility to fill its chickpea cargo, also loading this month.

In southern Qld, a shortage of trucks available to carry chickpeas to port is being felt in a road-reliant supply chain.

At GrainCorp’s three Qld export terminals, chickpea vessels are doing two-port loads to spread the task, and GrainCorp is using trains to help fill the holds.

Brisbane’s other two sites loading chickpea cargoes at present are Wilmar Gavilon’s QBT at Murarrie and Wagners and the public berth at Pinkenba across the river, none of which have rail connectivity.

Exporters using QBT’s and Wagners’ facilities are jointly expected to load more than 200,000t of chickpeas by early January, and the new licence-holder using the Pinkenba berth is expected to add further cargoes, as may GrainCorp.

On the production front, Outlook Ag director Greg Rummery said he expected around 90 percent of Walgett’s chickpea growers to finish harvest in the coming week, with crops generally averaging 2-3t/ha.

Bulk-handling sites south and east of Walgett are receiving chickpeas, and Mr Rummery said dry weather in recent weeks is allowing the top chickpea grade to capture all deliveries.

“Some of them are going into the system to get on to rail, and a lot are going into on-farm storage, in bunkers, grain bags, and sheds.”

Transport industry veteran and Smithfield Cattle Co commodity buyer Brett Carsburg said the pulse task has pushed up road freight rates by around $10/t.

“Our northern NSW and Qld chickpea harvest is the biggest we’ve ever seen, and headers are going from 8am to 1am,” Mr Carsburg said.

“It’s dragged every truck available from coarse grains into pulses.”

Patchy rain in the past 48 hours has allowed some let-up.

“Now I see some light at the end of the tunnel for logistics.

“Normally, headers stop at 7 or 8 o’clock, but conditions have been perfect for harvesting wheat, barley, and chickpeas; we’ve had such a good run for 14 days with the weather.”

Mr Carsburg said the high value and immediate call for chickpeas and faba beans into Brisbane will keep trucks under pulses for some weeks yet.

Australia’s 2024-25 bulk export program to Egypt is off to a strong and early start, with around 100,000t already on the water, including a Qube cargo now loading in Newcastle which includes faba beans railed in from Coonamble.

“I think NSW can ship that quantity twice over again, such was the area growth in fabas and fantastic yields; logistics is what will make this slow,” Agri-Oz managing director Francois Darcas said.

Fabas are also being exported from Brisbane, with values showing the north’s discount to the south based on its much bigger supply now available.

In north-central NSW, where a big faba bean harvest is under way, indicative delivered Coonamble prices are sitting at around $430/t, compared with $520/t at Wagga Wagga in southern NSW.

Delivered port values show a similar spread, with Brisbane at $540/t being around $80/t below Victorian port prices.

Vic and South Australia are not yet harvesting their faba bean crops, and Mr Darcas said the NSW crop should more than compensate for the smaller southern crops.

“Overall, the Australian faba crop is probably the same or a bit larger than last year.”

“There is some forward selling but not much yet, which explains the jump in prices in the last week as some traders are short for Nov-Dec shipments, and other traders are delighting in making the shorts suffer.

“The higher prices in Vic-SA actually allow trucking of northern fabas from as far north as Coonamble and beyond.”

The Brisbane market has rallied around $50/t in the past month to reflect the demand for bulk, which is still able to access the Suez Canal, while containerised pulses have to transit around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the possibility of attacks in the Red Sea.

Robinson Grain general manager Adam Robinson said the opening of a bulk pathway is supporting bids to growers in NSW, who are often too far from southern loading ports to price into bulk export business.

“We have more faba beans in the north than we’ve had in a long time,” Mr Robinson said.

“Exporters are willing to put capacity into NSW, and bulk is so important this year.

“Container freight into Egypt is very high, probably US$40/t higher than bulk, and transit is a lot slower; it takes 80-100 days if a ship has to go around the cape.

“With this larger reliance on bulk rather than containers, we’re seeing it in front-end demand, and the stem has been quieter on barley and wheat.”

Lentil values are holding firm to reflect the later-than-expected start to volume coming out of Vic after a low-rainfall growing season.

Larger Jumbo-type lentils are trading at $860-$900/t delivered Wimmera packer, while smaller Nipper types are trading at $830-$860/t.

Lentil prices on average are little changed from last month, but the spread between Jumbo and Nipper types reflects the late arrival of larger types in the early harvest slot.

ETG Horsham-based pulse trader Todd Krahe said Vic’s lentil harvest is yet to gather pace.

“We’re slowly getting into harvest; the Mallee has been doing barley and canola, and some lentils for the past fortnight.

“We’re getting a lot of cool temperatures overnight, humidity, and overcast conditions; I think we’re another week away from being at full tilt.”

In SA, some farms in eastern regions are harvesting around 300-600kg/ha of lentils, massively below their average yields of 2t/ha plus, and no surprise, given the late start, limited in-crop rain, and frost.

On SA’s Upper Yorke Peninsula, lentils are yielding around 1.5t/ha, and districts south of Kadina are generally getting 2t/ha or better, to put the Primary Industries and Regions SA forecast production for the entire YP at 224,000t from 160,000ha.

On SA’s Eyre Peninsula, a record lentil area seen by PIRSA at 145,000ha to produce a record 224,000t will help to bolster the impact of a drought-depleted season in the Upper, Mid and Lower North, and the Murray-Mallee.

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Tags: faba beans, lentils, Australia, export, bumper harvest, chickpeas, yields