Global chickpea shortage looms

Hummus and falafel lovers won’t want to hear this news, but it looks as though there will be a worldwide shortage of garbanzo beans, aka chickpeas, in the coming year. Reuters recently reported that global supplies of the crop may fall 20 percent over the next several months.

If you surmised that the war in Ukraine is to blame, you would be partially right. Russia and Ukraine are both huge exporters of chickpeas, and Russia’s crop was nearly totally destroyed early in the war, while Ukrainian farmers were unable to plant this year’s crop. However, the conflict doesn’t explain the entire shortage.

The United States is one of the world’s largest exporters of chickpeas, but farmers have switched to more lucrative crops in recent years, which means the supply in reserve has dipped by more than 10 percent. There are also shipping delays in California compounding the issue.

The upshot of all of these events is that prices will rise worldwide. In the US, chickpea prices are up nearly 20 percent over pre-pandemic levels, while hummus prices have climbed a more modest 7 percent. For now at least, there is still availability for chickpea products – hummus hasn’t been disappearing from store shelves like some products did during the pandemic – but you will have to pay more.