CHANGING the summer crop line-up to include mung beans was a straightforward decision for the Ruhle family at Bongeen, on the Darling Downs.
The Ruhles are in the process of harvesting 200 hectares of mung beans, with 80ha coming off last week and the remainder to be harvested in two weeks' time.
Andrew Ruhle said it was the first time he and his parents Raymond and Judith had grown the crop on their property Seacres, and they would probably grow them again.
"We wanted a bit of a rotation crop and the price was pretty good," he said.
"We'd also had some good rain to plant on.
"It's been a really good season - a little too wet for these mung beans but for everything else, the sorghum and corn - it's been really good."
Mr Ruhle said the Crystal mung beans were double cropped behind wheat and were averaging 1t/ha.
"The wheat was harvested in November and these were planted the first week of January," he said.
"They were pretty straightforward to grow; we gave them one in-crop spray and that was about it.
"They're a quick little cash crop."
Pulse Australia senior development manager Gordon Cumming said most people who were able to plant mung beans this summer were pretty happy with the result.
"It has not been a good summer season for mung beans; the area planted was well back on last year because we didn't have those Christmas/New Year rains so there was a lack of planting opportunity," he said.
"The Queensland summer crop could be as small as 12,000-15,000 hectares.
"However, for those who were able to get some mung beans in, yields are solid, averaging around 1.2t/ha."
Mr Cumming said prices range between $800-$950/t for No.1 processing mung beans.
"The real good positive coming out of this is that the market is strong and demand is quite high."