AN AGRICULTURAL gold rush is under way in Queensland as the chickpea sweeps aside wheat as our chief grain export.
Even Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who returned from India with Queensland’s biggest food order, one million tonnes of chickpeas, appears stunned by the pulse’s popularity.
The Queensland Treasury is rubbing its hands together in glee, possibly anticipating a chickpea-led recovery, as winter crop production estimates soar by 45 per cent this financial year.
Chickpeas were up there with the $21 billion Adani Carmichael mine earlier this month as Ms Palaszczuk visited India to shore up trade with Queensland’s third biggest export market.
The Premier said chickpea demand, particularly out of the subcontinent, had helped the state post its best export result of $53 billion last year.
Read the full article by Michael Madigan at The Courier-Mail.