Mung Beans

Green gram by seed size, shine & sprouting grade

Mung beans are graded on two things buyers underrate until a shipment disappoints: seed size and shine. Size runs roughly 2.8mm, 3.0mm, 3.2mm and 3.5mm+, with the bolder grades commanding a premium; shine — the bright, glossy green of the seed coat — separates shiny from dull-class material and is what retail packers and Far Eastern buyers are paying for, because it reads as freshness on shelf. Neither can be fixed downstream. Then there is the fork that really matters: sprouting grade. Bean-sprout producers do not buy on appearance at all — they buy on germination, typically specifying ≥ 95%, and that is a function of gentle handling, drying temperature and crop age. A beautiful, bold, shiny lot that has been over-dried is worthless to a sprouter, and a lot that germinates perfectly may not be the one a retail packer wants.

Beyond whole green gram, the mill forms are moong dal chilka (split with the green skin on) and moong dal dhuli (split, skinned, the yellow washed dal), and urad — black gram, a different species traded on the same lane and often quoted alongside. Buyers pick mung over lentils or chickpeas when they need the fast-cooking, mild bean that sprouts, or the yellow washed dal that cooks light rather than heavy. Supply is machine-cleaned, gravity-separated, Sortex-sorted and destoned, certified by SGS or Intertek for size, purity, moisture, foreign matter, damaged and shrivelled seed, germination where sprouting grade is specified, and crop year, with phytosanitary and fumigation documentation. CBIL arranges 25kg and 50kg PP bags, container-load, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.