Egypt loves our fabas
THE price of faba beans has jumped more than 65 per cent in 12 months, with 70 per cent of Australia’s exported beans feeding hungry mouths in the Egyptian army.
Agri-Oz Exports managing director Francois Darcas said the army was increasingly buying beans from importers, as changes to pesticide usage saw France dropping out of the Egyptian market.
“Egypt does grow faba beans. But they import them because local production is about 25 per cent,” Mr Darcas said.
“More and more, the army buys from private importers.
“Trade is now mostly private importers.
“They import a lot, because faba beans are part of their eating habits.”
Mr Darcas said traditionally the supply of faba beans to Egypt had been a three-horse race between Australia, the UK and France.
He said while Egypt grew its own faba beans, production was trending downwards, while Lithuania and Latvia were stepping up as suppliers because France used its beans for animal feed stock.
“About 70 per cent of exported Australian faba beans go to Egypt,” Mr Darcas said.
The price of Australian faba beans has risen by $190 a tonne on this time last year.
Faba beans delivered to Melbourne Monday fetched $450 a tonne, in comparison to $260 a tonne for the same time last year.
“In 2016-17 we had a massive crop here in Australia,” Mr Darcas said.
“Since then we’ve had a more normal crop. The year before yielded over 6000 tonnes. But the dry spell we’ve had in the last four to five months has really increased domestic feed consumption.
“Farmers are bringing back some stocks to feed animals.
“That has combined to exhaust the supply we had, and prices have jumped back up.”
Mr Darcas said a possible drop in faba beans due to a dry spring combined with a strong domestic demand could affect prices as Australia would have fewer beans available for export.
“At the moment, China cannot import Australian faba beans because there’s no agreement between the two,” he said.
“That’s something the Australian grains industry is working on.”