Pigeon Peas
White Pigeon Peas
The cream to off-white seeded type, traded as a separate line with its own buyers and its own price.
White pigeon peas are a distinct commercial product, not a grade of the red-brown crop. The seed coat runs from cream through to a pale off-white, and the type is grown deliberately rather than sorted out of a mixed lot. Volumes across East Africa are smaller than for the red-brown type, and availability varies more from season to season, so a white pigeon pea enquiry should always start with whether the quantity required is actually available in the window requested.
The buyers are different too. White pigeon peas move principally into markets where the pea is cooked whole and where appearance carries a premium, and into specific segments of the South Asian trade. Because the seed coat is pale, every defect is more visible than it would be on a red-brown pea: weather staining, heat damage, discolouration and off-colour grain all stand out. That has a direct consequence for the specification — admixture and discolouration tolerances on white pigeon peas are normally tighter, and colour sorting is more frequently specified.
The commercial risk to manage is admixture. A red-brown pea in a white lot is immediately conspicuous, and a lot that would pass comfortably as a red-brown consignment can be rejected as a white one on the same defect percentage. Keeping the types separate through buying, storage, cleaning and packing is an operational discipline rather than a machine setting, and it is worth confirming how it is handled before contracting.
Where white pigeon peas are sourced
White types are grown across the same broad regions as the red-brown crop, concentrated where buyers have historically paid a premium for them. Because the areas are smaller and the trade thinner, aggregating a full container of a consistent white type takes longer than the equivalent red-brown volume, and lead times should reflect that.
Specification considerations specific to white pigeon peas
- Admixture
- The critical parameter. Coloured grain in a white lot is highly visible and is judged more harshly than the percentage alone suggests.
- Discolouration
- Weather staining and storage marking show clearly on a pale seed coat, so the tolerance is usually tighter than for red-brown.
- Colour sorting
- More frequently specified than for red-brown, because optical sorting is the effective tool against both admixture and discolouration.
- Availability
- Confirmed against the current crop. Volumes are smaller and more seasonal than for the red-brown type.
Specification
Typical specification
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.
Pigeon Peas — Colour Sorted
Machine cleaned and optically sorted
- Product
- Whole pigeon peas, colour sorted
- Origin
- Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique
- Crop year
- Stated on contract
- Moisture
- 12% max
- Purity
- 99% min
- Foreign matter
- 0.5% max
- Admixture
- 1% max
- Damaged and discoloured
- 1% max
- Broken and split
- 1% max
- Insect damaged
- 1% max
- Immature and shrivelled
- 0.5% max
- 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.
- GMO status — There are no commercially cultivated genetically modified varieties of this crop.
- Colour sorting raises the visual grade and reduces defect percentages; it increases the reject fraction and therefore the price.
- Sorting intensity is set against the contract, not applied at a single fixed setting.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Are white pigeon peas the same crop as red pigeon peas?
They are the same species, Cajanus cajan, but they are grown as distinct types and traded as separate products with different prices and different buyers. They should not be substituted for one another.
Is white pigeon pea availability consistent?
Less so than for the red-brown type. Volumes are smaller and more seasonal, so quantity and shipment window should be confirmed against the current crop before a contract is priced.
Request pigeon peas availability
Send your target origin, specification, quantity, packing, destination port and Incoterm, and we will come back with a position against the current crop.
- Origin
- Specification
- Crop year
- Quantity
- Packing
- Destination port
- Incoterm