Sesame Seed

Sesame Seeds is one of the most important oilseed crop of India and like other oilseeds,

market with western India being the major producer of sesame seed. India is the largest producer and exporter of it to world market. Sesame is also harvested in countries like Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, other African countries, China etc. with Africa being a major supplier to international market but China remains net importer. It exports food grade sesame and imports oil grade in big quantity. Besides China, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, U.S., Europe and Middle East are the big buyers.

Sesame Seed Types & Uses

There are mainly three types of sesame seeds produced in India - white, black and brown. Natural white sesame seed is the most traded and used for crushing and direct consumption. It has its various uses in bakery, confectionery, sesame products like tahini and many other food items. Indian sub-continent mainly crushes it to produce unrefined and filtered oil while East and Southeast asian countries consume toasted oil. In Middle East it is mainly used in the production of tahini (halwa). Brown seeds are also used for oil extraction purpose whereas black sesame seeds are for medicinal purpose as they are known to have many health benefits.

process - Autodried and Sundried. Developed countries prefer auto while developing nations buy sundried which is more reasonable.

Sesame Seed Exports

India's main export is of mainly below type:
Natural White Sesame Seed: 99/1/99.90%., 99/1/1, 98/2/2, 95/5/2
Hulled Sesame Seed: AutoHulled and Sundriedhulled - 99.5%-99.95%.

China, Taiwan, Korea, U.S., Europe, Middle East and Australia are the major destinations for Indian sesame seeds. Russia is a big buyer of Sundried hulled variety. In the year 2007-08, India exported sesame of value more than ninty million dollars to various countries with China being the biggest buyer.

The prices of sesame seeds are highly volatile and can swing to great extent in a day. The information regarding its crop size in different parts of the world is not easily available and thats why the crop estimates keep on changing. This information gap gives opportunities to big stockists to dictate the sesame movement to their advantage. Also there is no futures platform for sesame seed in India, so exporters and traders cannot hedge their price risk and are prone to the sudden fluctuations.

Ethiopian Sesame Seed Scenario

In Ethiopia, sesame seed grows mainly in the northern and northwestern region. The sowing is done during June to mid-september and harvesting from October onwards. During 2005-06, the country exported around 2,40,000 tons contributing 95% of oilseeds exports in value. For season 09-10, its export target stands at 7,20,000 tons. The country is one of the major sesame exporting nation currently ranked at the fourth position in world markets. Unlike India and China, who besides being major producers are big consumers too, Ethiopia exports most of its production.

Types of Sesame Seed in Ethiopia: Humera Sesame seed is the main type exported by the country. It also produces Gonder and Wellega types which are further divided into grades. Ehtiopian commodity exchange has started trading in sesame seeds since May 2009. The exchange provides platform to deal in Humera sesame seed grade 1 and 2, Gonder SS grade 1 and 2 and Wellega SS grade 1,2 and 3.