Red Lentils and Mung Beans from Pakistan: What Buyers Actually Need to Know

Most buyers calling me about Pakistani lentils make the same mistake in the first 60 seconds. They ask for "red lentils" without telling me the size, the polish, the splitting preference, or which market it's going to. And then they're surprised when the sample doesn't match what their customer in Algiers or Colombo wanted.

So let me write this one properly. Specs, calendar, what's actually moving, and where Pakistan fits in the global pulse trade right now.

Red Lentils: The Honest Specs

Pakistan isn't Canada. Let's get that out of the way first. Canada ships somewhere around 1.7 million tonnes of red lentils a year and dominates the bulk trade. Pakistan's red lentil export volume is much smaller, and a lot of what we ship is actually re-processed Canadian or Australian raw lentils that get split, polished, and re-exported through Karachi.

Here's why that matters for you as a buyer. When you ask for "Pakistani red lentils," you're usually getting one of three things:

• Football lentils (whole red) — the whole seed with the brown skin still on, before processing
• Split red lentils, unpolished (Malka masoor) — split, skin removed, matte finish
• Split red lentils, polished (Football masoor split) — split, oiled, that glossy orange color south Asian buyers love

The polish matters more than people think. African buyers — Egypt, Sudan, Algeria — usually want unpolished or lightly polished. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, parts of the Gulf — they want the glossy polish. I had a buyer in Dubai reject 24 tonnes once because the polish was too matte. Same lentil. Different finish. That's the whole game.

Standard export specs we run:

• Purity: 99.5% min
• Moisture: 12% max (I personally won't ship above 11.5% in summer)
• Broken: 2-3% max for premium, 5% for standard
• Foreign matter: 0.1% max
• Size: 3.5mm and 4mm are the common splits

For whole red lentils, the size grading goes by diameter — Bold (4.5mm+), Medium (3.75-4.5mm), Small. Bigger isn't always better. Some Indian buyers actively want medium because it cooks faster in dal preparations.

Mung Beans: Where Pakistan Actually Competes

Mung beans Pakistan exports — this is a different story. Here we're not a re-exporter. We grow it. Punjab, particularly the Bhakkar, Layyah, and Khushab belt, produces what's called Pakistani green mung, and the quality competes directly with Myanmar and Australian origin in a lot of markets.

The varieties you'll see in offers:

• AZRI mung — shiny green, medium size, very clean
• NM-2006 and NM-2011 — newer varieties, bolder seed
• NM-92 — the workhorse, still common in farmer plantings

For export, what buyers ask about is sortex grade. Single sortex, double sortex, triple sortex (also called hand-picked select or HPS). Triple sortex is what gets shipped to Japan and high-end European buyers. It's expensive — adds roughly $40-60 per tonne over single sortex — but the rejection risk drops to almost zero.

Typical specs we offer:

• Admixture: 1% max (triple sortex: 0.1%)
• Damaged/discolored: 1-2% max
• Moisture: 12% max
• Size: 3.2mm to 4.2mm depending on grade
• Crude protein: 22-24%

The Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam — big buyers for our mung. The Gulf takes a steady volume too, mostly for South Asian expat consumption. And then there's the sprouting market in Europe, which is smaller but pays a premium if you can hit germination rates above 92%.

Crop Calendar — When to Actually Buy

This is where I see procurement managers waste money. They buy in the wrong window and pay 15% more than they should've.

Mung beans in Pakistan have two crops:

• Kharif (main crop): Sown June-July, harvested September-October. This is the big one. 80%+ of volume comes from here. New crop pricing starts settling by mid-October, and that's your buying window if you want the best price.
• Spring crop: Sown March-April, harvested June. Smaller, lower quality usually, but useful for filling gaps.

If you buy mung in February-March, you're buying old stock at a premium because supply is tight before the spring crop arrives. I've seen buyers panic-buy in March and pay $1,250/MT when October pricing was $1,050/MT for the same spec. That's $200 a tonne, gone.

Red lentils — since most of ours is re-processed Canadian or Australian, the calendar follows the origin crop. Canadian lentils harvest August-September, arrive in Karachi by November-December for processing. Australian lentils harvest November-January. So the cleanest pricing window for Pakistani-processed red lentils is December through March, when fresh raw material is being processed and inventories are healthy.

What Buyers Get Wrong

Honestly, the biggest mistake I see — buyers fixate on price per MT without specifying the spec sheet properly, then get angry when the cheap offer turns out to be 4% broken instead of 2%. A $40/MT price difference between two offers usually reflects a real quality difference. It's not the supplier being greedy or generous. It's the spec.

The second thing — fumigation and packaging. Pulses are pest-magnets. We do methyl bromide or phosphine fumigation depending on destination regulations (the EU is increasingly restricting MB, so phosphine is standard for European shipments). Packaging matters too — 25kg PP bags are standard, but some buyers want 50kg jute, some want 1kg consumer packs, some want bulk in container liners. Specify this upfront or your shipment gets delayed.

I used to think buyers always wanted the highest grade. Then I realized — a lot of distributors in West Africa actually want standard grade because their end market is price-sensitive, and triple-sortex mung is overspec for them. Match the spec to the market, not to your idea of "premium."

What's your destination port and end-market? That changes the whole conversation before we even talk price.