Dan the Chickpea Man

When Martinborough farmer Dan Smith was first served curried chickpeas by a flatmate in 1998 he thought they tasted awful.
But despite the flavours, and ever the opportunist, he saw potential in the then often overlooked legume.
"They were something I didn't really like, but it caused me to ask the question of what they were," he said. "I thought if vegetarians are eating these things, there could be an opportunity."
He soon discovered that in New Zealand at that time chickpeas were 100 per cent imported.
The only seed stock in the country was held by universities ("just a couple of hundred grams"), but they were happy to give him some, and away he went.
Mr Smith, whose main line of farming is lamb trading, says it has been a long, tough process getting to the stage where now he can grow the chickpeas "relatively easily".
"We had a good crop one year and then the next year not so good. On the third year we nearly lost them all. I persevered from there and developed some spray technology."
Today, his company New Zealand Chickpeas Ltd is the sole chickpea producer in the country.
The business is still small, supplying about 1 per cent of the domestic market, and mainly for the hummus and falafel manufacturing sector.
A small portion also goes to bulk bins in some supermarkets around the country.
But he has bigger plans. He wants to control a "reasonable portion" of the domestic market, and is looking to the international seed market, where he says we have a huge advantage.
Unlike most other countries, New Zealand is free of a devastating fungal disease called Ascochyta rabiei.
According to Mr Smith's figures, the domestic appetite for chickpeas has grown from 50 tonnes in 1996 to about 2500 tonnes today.
Reflecting that trend, he has also changed his tune on the taste of the humble chickpea.
"I eat them now. I think my palate's changed, as well as everyone else's around the country."