Chickpeas
Kabuli and desi chickpeas graded by calibre — the number that sets the price. Chickpeas are priced by calibre before anything else. Kabuli types are sized by millimetre screen or by count per ounce, and the step from a 7 mm to a 9 mm calibre is a genuine price step, not a rounding difference. A canner or a hummus plant buys large calibre for visual consistency; a miller producing besan buys desi type where size is almost irrelevant and yield is everything.
At a glance
- Product
- Chickpeas
- Grades
- Kabuli 7 mm · Kabuli 8 mm +3 more
- Typical applications
- Hummus and prepared dip manufacture · Canning and retort packs · Roasted and coated snack production
- Packaging
- 25 kg and 50 kg woven polypropylene bags · 1,000 kg bulk bags · Bulk in lined containers
- • Certificate of Analysis is provided against the confirmed shipment, grade and batch.
- • Manufacturer TDS and SDS are subject to grade and supplier confirmation and are available on request.
- • Grades, packaging and origin above are indicative sourcing options and are confirmed at quotation.
Available grades from container-direct sourcing
Kabuli 7 mm
Entry calibre for value canning and blended packs.
Kabuli 8 mm
The broad commercial middle of the export market.
Kabuli 9 mm
Premium calibre for whole-bean presentation.
Kabuli 10 mm and above
Limited availability, priced accordingly, subject to crop year.
Desi chickpeas
Smaller, darker seed for splitting and besan flour milling.
Typical applications
- Hummus and prepared dip manufacture
- Canning and retort packs
- Roasted and coated snack production
- Besan and chickpea flour milling
- Ready meals and food service
Why Canadian buyers choose us
- Enquiries quoted against your specification — class, grade and presentation, not a fixed stock list
- Specification, origin, availability and certification confirmed in writing at quotation
- Supplier documentation (COA, SDS, technical data) provided for the grade actually offered
- One point of contact from enquiry through documents, packing and shipment
- Quantities reviewed per enquiry, from bagged lots to full container and vessel programmes
Typical industries served
Material identity
Chickpeas — identifiers and the names buyers use
Also searched as
Industry terminology
Identifiers are published for material identification. The exact specification of any offered grade is confirmed against supplier documentation at quotation.
Buyer intent coverage
Chickpeas — what it is, where it is used, how it is chosen
Chickpeas split into two botanically and commercially separate types. Kabuli chickpeas are the large pale seeds bought by hummus, canning, snack and retail operations, traded by calibre — the seed count per unit weight — which is the single largest price driver. Desi chickpeas are smaller and darker and are milled into flour or split for traditional applications. Buying one when the recipe needs the other is the most common and most expensive error in this trade, and calibre imprecision on kabuli enquiries is a close second.
Primary uses
- Hummus, falafel and canned-chickpea feedstock where calibre drives value
- Snack and roasted-chickpea raw material
- Feedstock for besan / gram flour and protein processing
Applications
- Hummus, falafel and canned pulse manufacturing
- Snack roasting and coated-snack production
- Gram flour milling and protein processing
- Retail repacking and foodservice supply
Advantages
- Two clearly separated types serve very different processing routes from one crop family
- Calibre grading on kabuli gives an unusually precise and comparable pricing basis
- Strong global demand across canning, hummus, snack and milling keeps multiple origins active
Limitations to consider
- Kabuli and desi are not interchangeable in appearance, processing behaviour or price
- Larger calibres command significant premiums, so imprecise sizing distorts an offer comparison
- Cooking behaviour and skin condition change with crop year and storage age, which matters in canning
- Purity, admixture, foreign matter, defect percentages, moisture, size or count grade, colour value and every other numeric axis are properties of one shipment from one facility. They are read from the supplier specification and the certificate of analysis for the exact lot offered, and are confirmed against a shipment sample rather than quoted here from memory.
How to choose the right grade
- Name the type first — kabuli or desi — and then the calibre range where kabuli is required
- State the processing route, since a canning line, a hummus plant and a flour mill accept different lots
- Confirm crop-year position where your process depends on consistent cooking behaviour
- A pre-shipment sample approved by your own quality team is the only honest way to qualify a lot of an agricultural commodity. Colour, aroma, cooking behaviour and processing yield vary between crops, facilities and even between lots from the same facility, so approval works against a retained sample rather than against a description.
- Origin and crop year are the two variables that move this market most, and both belong to the specific lot being offered rather than to a web page. Buyers search by origin because origin changes appearance, behaviour and price, but the origin, harvest period and crop year of any material quoted are confirmed in the offer and in the shipping documents, never assumed from a category page.
- Exact specification is confirmed against supplier documentation at quotation.
Typical grades
- Sizing and grading descriptions used in the origin market for this pulse, confirmed per offer
- Whole versus split versus decorticated offers, which are specified and priced differently
- Cleaning descriptions — machine cleaned, sortex, double sortex — as the supplier declares them
- Certified lots (organic, Halal, Kosher, non-GMO) where the supplying facility holds the certification for that lot
- Organic, Halal, Kosher, non-GMO, gluten-free and food-safety scheme certifications belong to a producing facility and to a specific lot, and they lapse, change scope and vary by shipment. State the certifications your customer or regulator requires at the enquiry stage so they are verified against current certificates for the offered material rather than assumed.
- Availability, price and quality follow the crop calendar of the producing origin, and the position of an offer in that calendar matters as much as the specification. New-crop and carry-over material behave differently in storage and in process, so the crop year is confirmed per shipment rather than treated as a constant.
Comparable materials — how Chickpeas sits against alternatives
- Kabuli versus desi types depending on the finished product
- A different calibre selected against the same application
- Fava beans where the falafel or snack recipe permits substitution
- Buyers looking for an alternative or second-source supplier should state the incumbent origin, the specification currently accepted and the property that must be matched. Two lots that share a commodity name are not commercially equivalent: origin, processing and crop year all shift performance, so a trial shipment or approved sample precedes a changeover.
Comparable-material reference. Grade selection is confirmed at RFQ against your process.
Procurement coverage
How to specify, order and receive Chickpeas
Written for procurement, quality and technical buyers in Canada and the United States. No numeric price, MOQ, stock or lead-time value is published — those are confirmed per shipment in the quotation and against the confirmed batch.
How buyers specify at RFQ
- Whole, split, decorticated or polished form, and the sizing description the trade uses
- Purity, foreign material, splits and defect tolerances as declared for the lot
- Colour and appearance expectations, which drive acceptance in retail and repack channels
- Moisture and infestation control condition as declared and documented per shipment
- Cooking behaviour where the buyer's product depends on it, confirmed against a shipment sample
- Origin, crop year and processing facility as declared by the supplier
- The exact commodity, form and processing state your plant needs — whole, split, ground, hulled, milled or kernel
- The specification axes that decide acceptance in your process, and the tolerances your programme applies to them
- The origin or origins you can accept, and any origin your customer excludes
- The certifications and food-safety documentation required before the material can be used
- The pack format and delivery point your site can physically receive
- Exact specification is confirmed against supplier documentation at quotation.
Packaging options (industry-standard)
- Woven polypropylene, jute or multiwall paper bags in the formats the supplier packs
- Bulk bags (FIBC / tote) where the receiving plant can handle them
- Retail and catering pack formats where the supplier operates a packing line
- Container stuffing arrangement — palletised or floor-loaded — agreed per shipment
- Packaging options and available pack sizes are confirmed with each quotation.
Storage & handling
- Store sealed, dry, off the floor and away from strong-smelling materials; agricultural commodities pick up odour readily
- Control temperature and humidity in line with what the supplier states for the commodity and pack
- Rotate by receipt date and record the lot number used against each production batch
- Maintain a pest-management programme and inspect incoming containers before unloading
- Stored food commodities age and are vulnerable to moisture, odour pickup and infestation. Storage conditions, rotation discipline and pest-management controls at your own warehouse determine whether a good lot stays good, and treatment history at origin is confirmed in the documentation rather than assumed.
- Long ocean transit and Canadian winter conditions both affect agricultural material: moisture migration, condensation in containers, freezing and temperature swings during inland delivery all change the condition of a lot between loading and receipt. Container preparation, liners and desiccant use are agreed with the supplier before shipment rather than debated afterwards.
Documentation available
- Supplier specification sheet for the exact lot offered, stating the axes the supplier declares
- Certificate of analysis (COA) for the shipped lot, covering the parameters your programme requires
- Certificate of origin and shipping documents for the specific consignment
- Phytosanitary, fumigation or treatment documentation where the destination or the buyer requires it
- Certification documents (organic, Halal, Kosher, non-GMO) where the lot is offered as certified
- Food-safety scheme certification for the producing or packing facility where your programme requires it
- Documentation is confirmed per batch at quotation; availability depends on the grade and supplier offered.
- Ask for the documentation pack against the exact lot at the enquiry stage rather than after the vessel sails. Documentation availability differs by origin, facility and destination requirement, and in traded food commodities the paperwork is part of the goods: a lot without the documents your programme requires cannot be used, whatever its physical quality.
- Microbiological limits, mycotoxin and pesticide-residue requirements, heavy-metal limits and allergen controls are set by your own food-safety programme and by the Canadian regulator, not by a supplier's habit. Agree the testing regime, the sampling plan and who pays for what before the shipment moves, because a rejection at destination is far more expensive than a test at origin.
RFQ checklist for chickpeas
Include these fields to receive an accurate Canada-landed quotation
- The exact commodity, form and specification required, and the incumbent origin where there is one
- Volume per shipment and expected annual usage, so the offer is built on real consumption
- Crop year position you need, and whether carry-over material is acceptable
- Certification and documentation set required before the material can be used
- Pack format your plant or warehouse can physically receive and handle
- Delivery point in Canada and the incoterm the comparison should be made on
- Sampling and approval process, including who approves the pre-shipment sample
- The type and, for kabuli, the calibre range your product specification is built on
- Landed cost in Canada is decided by pack format, container utilisation, port of discharge, drayage and receiving arrangements as much as by unit price. Offers are compared delivered to your plant or warehouse, in the same incoterm and the same pack, or the comparison is not a comparison.
Technical & procurement detail
What this product is and what decides quality+
Chickpeas are priced by calibre before anything else. Kabuli types are sized by millimetre screen or by count per ounce, and the step from a 7 mm to a 9 mm calibre is a genuine price step, not a rounding difference. A canner or a hummus plant buys large calibre for visual consistency; a miller producing besan buys desi type where size is almost irrelevant and yield is everything. The second quality axis is skin condition and colour. Wrinkled, stained or split seed reads as low quality on a plate even when the nutritional value is untouched, so a food-grade contract states a maximum for defective and discoloured seed. For canning, uniform hydration matters: mixed calibres in one lot cook unevenly and produce soft and firm beans in the same can. Tell us the end process — canning, hummus, roasting, snack coating or milling — and the calibre discussion resolves itself quickly.
Types, classes and grades+
Kabuli 7 mm: Entry calibre for value canning and blended packs. Kabuli 8 mm: The broad commercial middle of the export market. Kabuli 9 mm: Premium calibre for whole-bean presentation. Kabuli 10 mm and above: Limited availability, priced accordingly, subject to crop year. Desi chickpeas: Smaller, darker seed for splitting and besan flour milling.
Specification basis+
Calibre — 7, 8, 9 and 10 mm screens; count per ounce on request. Purity — Typically 99 %+ machine cleaned for food grade. Moisture — Normally 12–14 % maximum at loading. Defects — Maximum defective, split and discoloured seed agreed per contract. Processing — Cleaned, sized, gravity separated and colour sorted. Values vary by grade, crop year and supplier and are confirmed against supplier documentation at quotation.
Supply and origin context+
Canadian chickpea production is concentrated in Saskatchewan, with kabuli types the main export class. Volumes are more variable year to year than lentils or peas because acreage responds sharply to relative pulse prices and to growing-season moisture. The practical implication is that large-calibre kabuli is not equally available in every crop year. When a specific calibre is tight, the honest options are to accept a smaller calibre, to blend within a stated tolerance, or to wait for the new crop — we will say which of these applies rather than quote a size we cannot ship. Origin, availability, grade and certification are confirmed at quotation for the lot actually offered — origin is a supply attribute, never an assumed property of the product.
Commercial and shipping notes+
Always contract on a stated calibre and a stated screen tolerance — 'large kabuli' is not a specification. · Confirm whether your market requires a specific pesticide residue standard; testing scope is agreed before shipment. · Quoted FOB, CFR or CIF.
Documentation+
Commonly relevant documentation: Certificate of Analysis with calibre distribution · Phytosanitary Certificate · Certificate of Origin · Pesticide residue report on request · Fumigation certificate where required. Availability is confirmed per order and per destination.
Frequently asked questions
What should the first enquiry for chickpeas include?+
State the quantity, the destination, the presentation you need and the parameters you buy on — calibre, purity, moisture, defects, processing. With those in the enquiry we can return a quotation instead of a list of questions.
Which types or grades of chickpeas are available?+
Kabuli 7 mm, Kabuli 8 mm, Kabuli 9 mm, Kabuli 10 mm and above, Desi chickpeas. All of these are grades of the same product rather than separate products; the grade is fixed at quotation.
What packaging options are available?+
25 kg and 50 kg woven polypropylene bags · 1,000 kg bulk bags · Bulk in lined containers. Packaging is confirmed at quotation, because it affects both protection in transit and freight cost.
Where does the material originate?+
Origin, availability, grade and certification are confirmed at quotation for the lot actually offered — origin is a supply attribute, never an assumed property of the product.
Technical knowledge for Chickpeas — Kabuli & Desi Classes | Allzone
Engineering and purchasing guidance written for this material — understand it, apply it, compare options, specify a grade, and fix production problems.
Comparison Articles
Related products
Materials commonly quoted alongside Chickpeas by the same plants.
Need a quote on Chickpeas?
Request pricing, TDS/SDS and available documentation. We usually acknowledge enquiries within one business day; samples are subject to supplier availability and product classification.