Mozambique: Start of pigeon pea exports to India brought forward

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Mozambique: Start of pigeon pea exports to India brought forward

11:23 CAT | 08 Aug 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Wikimedia Commons]

Due to the quantities available, Mozambique’s Institute of Cereals (ICM) has brought forward by almost two months the start of pigeon pea exports to India, which purchases almost all of Mozambique’s production of this legume. Export is beginning immediately, according to an ICM letter, dated August 4th.

According to a late-July statement from the ICM, which is overseen by the Ministry of Economy, the export of this legume is regulated by an agreement between the two countries, “based on India’s needs” and also in the quantities exported in the previous year.

The communication stated that exports in the 2025/2026 fiscal year could only begin after September 30th, for “strategic reasons”, such as protecting domestic supply at the peak of the harvest, preventing “speculation and containing predatory practices”, allowing for “logistical organization and prior inspection”, and ensuring the introduction of the certificate of origin.

However, the ICM, in a letter dated August 4th, also consulted by Lusa and sent to the Customs department, cancelled the previous instruction: “For objective reasons related to the process of controlling stock variations in the warehouses of exporting companies, an assessment was carried out, in which we found considerable quantities available for export.”

The same letter authorized “effective immediately on August 5th” the export of pigeon peas by authorised companies, using the certificate “bearing the designation of the Ministry of Economy”.

In 2023 alone, Mozambique exported more than 230,000 tons of pigeon peas, 90% of which went to India under the 2023-2026 memorandum of understanding between the governments of Mozambique and India.

In 2024, this export was marked by controversy involving the ETG conglomerate, one of the country’s main pigeon peas exporters. On October 16, the conglomerate demanded, in an arbitration court, that the Mozambican state pay more than €100 million in compensation for losses resulting from the judicial seizure of the firm’s assets in a dispute over the legume, also seized at a port in the north of the country.

In May, the conglomerate threatened to appeal to international arbitration courts regarding the dispute it had been having with RGL for months over pigeon peas exports.

This position is contained in a letter sent by ETG to the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office (PGR), in which the conglomerate, which has operated in Mozambique for 25 years, recalled that it had been trying for several months to recover a shipment of agricultural products, including pigeon peas, worth US$55 million (€47.3 million) seized at the port of Nacala in the north of the country, as part of this dispute.

Lusa reported on February 1 that the Nacala-Porto court decided “not to support” the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office, which had ordered the dismissal of the case regarding the dispute over pigeon peas exports to India between Royal Group Limitada (RGL) and its competitor ETG, which led to the seizure of the conglomerate’s agricultural products.

“The ETG Group filed an arbitration claim seeking damages in excess of US$120 million [over €103.5 million] against the Republic of Mozambique for the State’s role in the expropriation of ETG products, in violation of investor rights in the country,” the Mauritian-based business group said in an October statement.

The conglomerate accused the Mozambican state of orchestrating and facilitating the illegal expropriation of assets, violating the norm of “fair and equitable treatment”, and resorting to coercion and harassment of workers.

Furthermore, the Mozambican government “failed to guarantee ETG’s right to export goods without any restrictions”, it continued.

The company stated that, on January 17, 2024, it filed a notice of dispute against the Mozambican government for alleged illegal actions in relation to its assets and commercial activities and, on May 13, 2024, it again questioned the authorities on the same matter, but without “any serious attempt on the part of the Mozambican government to resolve the matter”.

Source: Lusa