PRIVATE forecasters have said 2020-21 Australian lentil production could be more than 50 per cent more the official estimate.
Mostyn Gregg, global pulse trader with Agrocorp, said he anticipated the final crop would weigh in at as much as a million tonnes.
In comparison the most recent ABARES / Pulse Australia figures, from the start of December sat at 616,000 tonnes.
Mr Gregg based his estimate on a combination of better yields and more plantings.
"At sowing time there was the Chinese announcement about barley tariffs and many growers, where possible, switched out of barley," Mr Gregg, who recently relocated from Australia to Singapore, said.
"One of the crops that fitted agronomically with the later planting window was lentils and given it was a good break in many key lentil growing regions farmers were confident to go with the crop.
He said the area where the legume was widely adapted had also grown.
"We now see it firmly established in the lower rainfall regions of the Mallee in South Australia and Victoria, where it used to be more in medium rainfall areas like the Yorke Peninsula and the Wimmera."
"I think planted area is at least 17 per cent higher than last year," he said.
Yield is the other big driver behind Mr Gregg's bold prediction.
"New varieties have boosted the yield potential markedly and when combined with the good season like we had we've had some excellent results across all the major lentil producing regions," he said.
"You only have to ask around, all the local lentil delivery sites filled up quickly and there's plenty of reports of farmers storing them on-farm.
"If it is not a million tonnes it is very, very close."
Pulse Australia chief executive Nick Goddard said it was likely there would be an upward revision of the official 616,000 tonne December estimate he did not think it would be enough to lift production up to the levels flagged by Mr Gregg.
"It has been a great season but you would need some really big yields out there given the planted area was already established."
Prices have held firm for lentils in spite of the big crop, with values at the end of last week around $680 a tonne port.
All eyes are currently on India to see how much they will look to buy over coming months.