Hold onto your hummus: Global chickpea supply could drop 20% this year
A combination of Russia’s war in Ukraine, poor weather and transportation issues is leading to the shortage.
Chickpeas are protein-packed staples in diets around the world. (Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(JTA) – Lovers of hummus and falafel beware: data shows that global supplies of chickpeas, the main ingredient for both dishes, may dip up to 20% this year.
A combination of Russia’s war in Ukraine, poor weather and transportation issues is leading to the shortage, which is predicted to increase prices and make cheap hummus harder to come by, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Farmers in the United States, the fourth-largest chickpea exporter in the world, planted less of the protein-packed legume this year due to less than ideal weather conditions in the spring.
Russia is also a top chickpea producer. Global sanctions have interrupted the country’s global chickpea exports, while the ongoing war has decreased the amount of chickpeas normally grown in Ukraine by about 50 tons, the head of a global chickpea trader and brokerage firm told Reuters.
Many communities around the world have depended on chickpeas, which are a staple of many Israeli dishes, as cheap sources of protein and fiber. Demand for hummus has skyrocketed in the United States over the past two decades.
According to NielsenIQ data, chickpea prices are already 17% higher than they were before the pandemic began.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
