Lupins

Lupin has recently gained attention for its health benefits with a unique combination of high protein, high fibre, low oil and virtually no starch. 

Since the release of the first fully domesticated Australian sweet lupin in the late 1960s, lupin breeding by the department has resulted in a doubling of lupin yields from 0.7 to 1.5 tonnes per hectare. The majority of Western Australian lupin is exported as animal feed to the European Union, Japan, and Korea. 

Western Australian lupin industry 

Lupins are uniquely suited to the acid and sandy soils found across large tracts of the Western Australian wheatbelt and play an important role in breaking cereal disease cycles and adding fixed nitrogen to cropping systems. 

Production in Western Australia has declined since its peak in the late 1990s with a current gross value of production of around $200 million. 

The Australian sweet lupin has a low glycaemic index and there is increasing evidence it could have a place in combating obesity and associated health problems of diabetes and heart disease.

Production 

Lupin production expanded rapidly in Western Australia through the 1980s and 1990s before weed issues and low prices resulted in many growers opting for a canola (or fallow in low rainfall areas) rather than lupins in rotation within cereal systems. As a result, production fell from a high of 1.5 million tonnes in 1999 to a low of just below 300,000 tonnes in 2012. 

WA Lupin area and production 1990 to 2023

It is hoped that the new variety Rosemont, coupled with the continued promotion of lupins as a human health product, will lift lupin production across southern Australia, where a legume rotation is very much needed. 

The department supports the pre-breeding, breeding, agronomics, and market development of the WA lupins industry, in conjunction with industry partners. 

Markets  

Lupins have a unique combination of high protein, high fibre, low oil and virtually no starch. 

Most lupin production is used by stockfeed manufacturers for animal feed, with ruminants (cows and sheep) the largest market, followed by pigs and poultry. There is small but increasing use of lupins in aquaculture. 

While less than 4% of global production is consumed as human food, it is estimated that about 500,000 tonnes of food containing lupin ingredients is consumed each year in the European Union — mainly through the inclusion of low rates of lupin flour in wheat-based bakery products. 

About 40% of lupin production in WA is retained on-farm as stockfeed and seed or traded on the domestic market to supply the sheep, dairy, pig, and poultry industries. 

Lupins generally compete against soybeans in export markets and are typically valued at 70–75% of the price of soybean meal. WA accounts for most Australian lupin production and exports. WA is effectively the sole exporter of lupins into the large international market for vegetable-based proteins for the livestock industries. 

South Korea is a major buyer of WA lupins and has a large capacity dehulling plant, with the hulls used in animal feed and the kernels in pig feed rations. Other markets include the Netherlands, Vietnam, and Belgium. Most markets use lupins for animal feed, although small human food markets are developing.