India · Pigeon Peas
East African Pigeon Peas for the Indian Market
Pigeon peas moving from East Africa to India are bought to be milled. The whole grain is dehusked and split into tur dal, and everything an Indian buyer asks about in the specification traces back to how much sound dal a tonne of raw material will produce. Understanding that changes how an offer should be presented.
- Destination
- India
- Discharge ports
- Nhava Sheva (JNPT) · Mundra · Chennai · Tuticorin · Kolkata
- Commodity
- Pigeon Peas
India's own tur crop is large but varies year to year with the monsoon, and the consumption base is steady. When domestic output falls short, the shortfall is met from imports, with East Africa and Myanmar as the main sources. Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique are the East African origins that matter most for this trade, and their harvest windows fall in the middle and second half of the calendar year, which positions them well against the Indian marketing year.
For an exporter, the practical consequence is that this is a specification-and-timing trade, not a relationship trade. Buyers compare offers on origin, crop year, specification, packing and shipment window, and they move quickly when the numbers work.
Buyers
Who buys, and on what basis
- Dal millers who process whole tur into split dal and price on recovery.
- Importer-traders supplying mills and the wholesale market, holding positions across the season.
- Processors and packers producing branded retail dal, who care about colour as well as yield.
Logistics
Routing and packing
- Loading from Dar es Salaam for Tanzanian cargo, or Nacala and Beira for Malawi and Mozambique origin.
- Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Chennai and Tuticorin are the usual discharge ports; the buyer nominates according to where its mill sits.
- 50 kg PP bags are the common unit for milling buyers; 25 kg where the receiver prefers it.
- Fumigation and phytosanitary requirements applicable at the time of shipment must be confirmed and arranged before loading — they are not constant between seasons.
Specification
What matters most for this market
- Moisture
- Contracted at 12% max in most cases. High moisture causes problems in storage before milling and is the fastest route to a claim on arrival.
- Insect damage
- Bruchid-damaged grain mills poorly and is visible in the finished dal. Density separation on the cleaning line does most of the work here, and the tolerance is normally tight.
- Immature and shrivelled grain
- Directly reduces recovery, because underfilled grain yields less dal per tonne. Aspiration removes most of it, but the tolerance should be stated explicitly.
- Admixture and colour
- Red-brown, light brown and white pigeon peas mill and present differently. Mixed colours in a lot reduce its value even when the total defect percentage is within tolerance.
- Crop year
- Stated in the contract and expected on the bag. Old crop darkens and mills differently, and buyers price it accordingly.
Pigeon Peas — Machine Cleaned
Whole pigeon peas (tur / toor / arhar), East African origin
- Product
- Whole pigeon peas, Cajanus cajan
- Origin
- Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda
- Crop year
- Stated on contract
- Moisture
- 12% max
- Purity
- 98% min
- Foreign matter
- 1% max
- Admixture
- 2% max
- Damaged and discoloured
- 2% max
- Broken and split
- 2% max
- Insect damaged
- 2% max
- Immature and shrivelled
- 1% max
- Colour
- As per approved sample
- GMO status
- Not genetically modified
Notes on specific parameters
- Crop year — Contract on a specific crop year; it materially affects colour, cooking behaviour and insect load.
- Moisture — Lower moisture is specified for longer transits and humid discharge ports.
- Foreign matter — Stone, soil, straw, pod and extraneous seed.
- Admixture — Other colours and off-variety grain.
- Colour — Red-brown, light brown or white depending on the type contracted.
- GMO status — There are no commercially cultivated genetically modified varieties of this crop.
- Tighter parameters are available on a colour-sorted basis — see the Sortex specification.
- Final specification is agreed per contract and, where required, against an approved sample.
Specifications shown are indicative contract parameters used across the trade. They are not laboratory results and are not a guarantee attaching to any particular lot. The specification that governs a shipment is the one written into its contract, agreed against the buyer’s requirement and, where appearance matters, against an approved sample.
Regulatory position. Import policy for pulses into India is set by the importing authority and can change at short notice. Nothing here states the duty, restriction or phytosanitary condition in force. Confirm the current position with your customs broker and the competent authority before contracting, and agree in the contract which party carries the risk of a change between contract and arrival.
Request pigeon peas for India
Send your specification, crop year, quantity, packing, discharge port, Incoterm and shipment window for a commercial offer against the current crop.
- Specification
- Crop year
- Quantity
- Packing
- Discharge port
- Incoterm