Smaller World Chickpea Harvest Likely

WINNIPEG - Sep 1/06 - SNS -- There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding world chickpea production levels in 2006-07 because of the current drought in Australia and uncertainty about whether winter or rabi season production in India and Pakistan will recover from last year's disastrous levels, suggests Agriculture Canada in a recent outlook report on the commodity.

World production could slip 2% from 2005-2006 to 8.65 million metric tons (MT) as an increase in production for the kabuli type is more than offset by a decrease for the desi type, says Stan Skrypetz, Pulse and Special Crops Analyst, Agriculture Canada's Market Analysis Division in Winnipeg.

If achieved, this would allow world supplies to remain relatively stable at a projected 9.15 million MT because of this summer's higher carry-in stocks in key producing areas.

"The world production forecast for 2006-2007 is preliminary as seeding in India does not occur until October and November, the Australian harvest occurs in November and December and information about production in the Middle East and Mexico is limited," Skrypetz cautions.

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