Glacier FarmMedia – Canadian chickpea acres are most likely going to increase in Statistics Canada’s planted acreage report due out on June 27, according to Colin Young of Midwest Gran Inc. in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Earlier this year, StatCan projected some 400,000 planted acres of chickpeas in 2024/25. The year before about 315,500 acres were seeded.
The vast majority of chickpeas are grown in Saskatchewan, with StatCan expecting more than 360,000 acres, up from the 272,200 in 2023/24. The remainder of trackable amounts will be planted in Alberta at around 39,700 acres, down from the 43,300 put into the ground last year.
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“The general consensus is acres are up,” Young stated, noting StatCan’s data has been fairly accurate when it comes to chickpeas, with an acceptable margin of error.
He also expects production to increase due to the good conditions on the Prairies although the cool, wet weather has delayed chickpea development by about a week. He said the earlier planted chickpeas should begin to flower around the Canada Day long weekend.
“It’s not concerningly late by any means. It’s what I would call the late end of normal crop development-wise,” Young said. “The fear is that when we turn into July that there will be some hail.”
Should that occur, Young pointed out that would further delay the chickpeas by about an additional week or two. In turn that would raise the possibility of frost damage.
“An early September frost would certainly downgrade the quality,” he noted.
In the meantime, Young said chickpea growers have been taking good care of their crops with already one or two applications of fungicide to ward off the potential for diseases.
“The anxiety when you grow chickpeas begins when you treat your seed and it doesn’t stop until you cash your cheque,” Young joked.
Chickpea prices have dipped according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. The Kabulis regardless of size have shed a penny, with the largest sizes going for 41.8 to 44 cents per pound as of June 24. The B-90’s were also down a penny at 26.5 to 27.8 per cents/lb. while the Desi number ones were steady at 27.8 to 33 cents/lb.
