Sesame Seeds – Profile

Product Name:        Sesame Seeds

Botanical Name:      Sesamum Indicum

HS Code:                 120740 (Whether or not Broken)

Brief Product Description:

Sesame seeds are about 3 to 4 millimeters long by 2 millimeters wide and 1 millimeter thick. The seeds are ovate, slightly flattened and somewhat thinner at the eye of the seed (hilum) than at the opposite end. The weight of the seeds is between 20 and 40 milligrams. The seed coat (testa) may be smooth or ribbed. Sesame seeds come in many colours depending on the cultivar harvested. The most traded variety of sesame is off-white coloured. Other common colours are buff, tan, gold, brown, reddish, gray and black.

Types:

Black Sesame Seeds
White Sesame Seeds
Hulled Sesame Seeds

Producing Areas:

• Nasarawa
• Jigawa
• Benue
• Yobe
• Taraba
• Kano
• Katsina
• Gombe
• Kogi
• Plateau
• Niger States.

Estimated production figure

572,761MT (FAO; 2018)

Quality Standard:

Purity:                    –          98-99.5%

Foreign matter:      –         2% max

Oil content:            –         45% min

Moisture:               –         8% max

Packaging:

Clean Jute bag or polypropylene bag (pp) of 45-50kg

Uses:

Confectionaries, cooking oil, ingredient in cuisines, feed for poultry/livestock

Importing Countries:

• Japan
• Turkey
• Vietnam
• Brazil
• UAE
• China

Export Potential for Sesame Seed

The markets with greatest potential for Nigeria’s exports of  Sesamum seeds are “China”, “Japan” and “Turkey”. Nigeria has closest export links with Morocco. China is the market with the highest demand potential for  Sesamum seeds.

Want to have more detailed information? Check out the video and our one-page report! These are created making use of the Export Potential Map (ITC).