DESPITE sitting seventh in the ranking of pulse producing countries, Australia hits above its weight in terms of exports, delivering field peas, faba beans, lentils, chickpeas and lupins to eight out of the top 10 pulse importers.
India is the largest producer of pulses at about 21 million tonnes per year, followed by Canada at 7.4mt and China at 4.7mt.
On a five-year rolling average, Australia grows about 47mt of grain each year and of that, pulses represent six per cent, making it the fourth largest grain crop behind wheat, barley and canola.
Lupins and faba beans have remained a popular choice for Australian farmers, field peas have declined and, while chickpeas had taken up a decent amount of production in the past, as soon as market access to China was lost, that went down.
While the above statistics may be interesting, Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre markets manager Mary Raynes said Australian pulse production and market access was both driven and impeded by a variety of domestic and global factors.
Speaking at the Grain Industry Association of Western Australia 2022 Pulse Forum last Wednesday, Ms Raynes said it was well known that pulses add agronomic and nutritional value to the soil, but on the domestic front the dollars didn't always stack up.
"As much as pulses are great for our production systems, they can be challenging to grow and they don't all have agronomic fit across soil types and climatic conditions," Ms Raynes said.
"Sometimes the domestic price isn't that attractive and it can cost more to grow the crop then what you get out of it.
"In saying that, there are a lot of farmers out there who started growing pulses in the 1980s and 1990s and made a lot of money out of them and still are to this day."
Price fluctuations in pulse prices undoubtedly have an affect on Australian production.
In 2015/2016, lentils went from $400 per tonne to $1200/t and some South Australian growers produced lentils three seasons in a row.
Other positives driving the domestic market include improved supply chain infrastructure and storage, increased animal feed production and the manufacturing of protein concentrate isolates.
On the global market, population growth, particularly in South East Asian countries, is driving up the consumption of pulses.
"Everyone requires a level of protein and if they can't get it through protein, they will get it through other sources, with our pulses high on the list," Ms Raynes said.
"There is also an increase in pulses being sold into the animal feed market for the meat which appears on the kitchen table in terms of beef, pork and fish.
"Emotional consumption is also a factor - people want to eat natural products, compared to genetically modified ones and our pulses fit well into that space."
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The manufacturing of protein concentrate isolates which has helped to add diversity to domestic markets has also had an affect on the world, with China particularly interested in that space.
It's an area of rapid advancement in Australia with manufacturing facilities popping up for faba beans in Victoria, lentils in South Australia and lupins in WA.
As much as Australia is a big pulse producer for its size, overall it is small when compared to its competitors, which makes competing on the global market difficult at times, especially with some big hitters increasing their capacity.
"There is increased production from some of our biggest competitors - Canada went from nothing to about 2mt of yellow field peas to export into China and they have an easier ability to continue to increase their pulse production," Ms Raynes said.
"On top of that, we also face trade market access constraints with tariffs placing a big impediment on Australian pulse production.
"When production is going well in some countries, they will put a tariff in place and only remove it if production in those countries declines, which ultimately plays into the consistency of production in Australia."
Shipping and freight has also caused huge headaches over the past two years and, at the moment, getting containers to export pulses costs more than the product itself.
Whether that changes over the next 12 months is yet to be seen.
Ultimately, Ms Raynes said Australia could do more do to improve its engagement at a global level.
"Canada has been a leader on that," she said.
"It has the Canadian Pulse Council which is provided a lot more financial assistance to do the technical marketing engagement and promote themselves to customers."
