Sudanese sesame- missing old markets, new promising ones
14 April, 2013By: Amani Gandoul
KHARTOUM, (Sudanow) - The Sudan has for long retained its lead of the global sesame market as it was one of the major sesame exporters in the 1970s, exporting more than half a million tonnes.
The Sudan presently endeavors seriously to retake its lead as a sesame exporter, considering the occurrence of new factors and climatic changes that boosted its competitive ability in the international markets that enabled it to India, the Sudan’s fiercest competitor in the world market.
Speaking to SUDANOW on the Sudan’s future external trade of sesame, the chairman of the Exporters Chamber of Manager of Mahjoub Brothers Company, an exporter of oil seeds, including sesame, Wajdy Mirghani, wondered why sesame in particular rather than other oil seeds.
Answering his question by himself, Mirghani said: “The high quality of the Sudanese sesame, India’s pull-out of the market, the position of the Sudan as the world’s largest producer of sesame and the tremendous impact of this commodity on the Sudanese economy requires that all of us- exporters, producers and policy-makers- to join hands and plan for retrieving major old markets like Japan and opening new ones.
“We firmly believe that the Sudanese sesame exceeds, in quality and quantity, the produce of any other country and for this reason has for decades retained its impact on the world sesame trade.”
Mirghani described the present season as the most successful one, adding: “it is an unprecedented season,” attributing this to the heavy rainfall, good productivity and plentiful harvest of the cultivated area of more than 4 million feddans (acres) which was 30% more than the previous season. He cited Agriculture Minister Abdul Halim Al-Muta’afi as saying the preliminary results for the current farming season and the situation of the harvest of the various crops indicate a high productivity of the cash crops, particularly sesame the production of which ranges between 350,000 and 400,000 tonnes, bearing in mind its soaring local and international prices.
According to the Chairman of the Exporters Chamber, the success of the current season entails an increase in the export quantities, which could exceed 300,000 tonnes, fetching more than 300 million dollars.
The Sudanese sesame is presently exported to China and traditional Arab markets. The Sudan has recently obtained an order from Korea for 2,000 tonnes of sesame at acceptable prices, in addition to India, which was a major competitor in the world markets, has now begun importing quantities of Sudanese sesame.
How much is the volume of the annual production and how about the areas, export and the return of sesame, in accordance with the reports reaching the Exporters Chamber?
According to the statistics issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the annual production average is 350,000 tonnes. The areas cultivated with sesame in 2006/2007 reached 378,000 feddans that yielded 242,000 tonnes and in the next season (2007/2008), the areas rose to 416,000 feddans by 30% while the production increased by 44.62% to 350,000 tonnes. In 2008/2009 the acres decreased by 10% from 416,000 to 297,000 and the production was down from 350,000 to 318,000 tonnes. In 2012, the acreage under sesame reached 5 million feddans.
The average local consumption is estimated in the range of 150,000-200,000 tonnes while the sesame available for export is also 150,000-200,000 tonnes. The export rose from 171,000 tonnes in 1997 to 363,600 tonnes in 2011 and the proceeds increased from 117 million dollars in 1997 to 193,754.16 dollars in 2011.
The exportation of sesame flows steadily at acceptable prices that began at 1,400 dollars and have now reached 1,700 dollars with a number of helping factors including the rise of the prices, the increase in the production compared with the decrease in the production in China and India.
Sesame in Sudan is grown in the rain-fed regions with the season starting in October and the production peak in December and January. Mirghani says tests for growing sesame in irrigated regions have failed.
He said the sesame crop rotation is short and the demand for it is high and the production leftover, which is about 20%, is stored for the coming season in case of emergencies.
Gedaref, Blue Nile, Renk and South Kordufan states produce the white sesame, which is exported and is sold in the local markets of Hawatah, Renk, Rebek, Migainis, Um Rawabah, Rahad, El Obeid, Tandalty and Ed-Damazin. North Kordufan produces the red sesame the oil extraction of which is high, reaching 85%. The red sesame is consumed domestically and exported to Egypt and Uganda is among the competitors, according to Mirghani.
The ‘maryod’ type, which is a combination of red (70%) and white sesame (30%), is produced only in the Sudan, purchased by the white and red sesame exporters and exported to Korea and Japan; internationally, it is called Abujbaiha natural maryod.
Mirghani favors the sesame of Gedaref, which he says is the best type, attributing this to the climate and fertile soil of agricultural regions in Gedaref State. It is highly demanded in the international markets where its price is higher than that of the Blue Nile State by 20 dollars.
The Chairman of the Exporters Chamber indicates that local trade and markets of sesame do not abide by the international selling standards, with ambiguous information, except the Gedaref crops market, which is renowned for transparency in its daily transactions. It is better that the exporter gets the prices of crops in advanced methods applied in the international stock exchanges in a way that an exporter can follow up, without moving around, the developments in the prices. “This is what we are missing in the Sudan,” Mirghani said.
Mirghani has called upon the Agricultural Research Organization to develop the specimens of the crops in the Sudan. He also called upon the Chamber of Commerce to register the crops worldwide so as to preserve the Sudan’s rights, as this has become a global trend. Mirghani proposed that the exported sesame be registered under the Gedaref name. He called upon the Bank of Sudan to abide by the exportation policies so as to retain the markets and retrieve old ones like Japan to which the Sudan used to export around 120,000 tonnes.
The exporters confront several problems including the fees and taxes, which raise the production costs, in addition to the unstable export policy and the speculators who control the pricing and who purchase for storing purposes, according to Mirghani.
He also cited inability by the national banks in financing the exportation process due to the high rate of exchange of the Sudanese pound against the US dollar. “We have asked the Bank of Sudan to grant exemptions to a number of banks which are lacking in financial resources,” Mirghani said. He pointed out that the purchase of a thousand tonnes of sesame costs about 11 Sudanese pounds.
The Chairman of the Chamber of Exporters said that most of the countries consume sesame in the form of food ingredients such as the manufacture of many sweets, including Tahini. In Kordufan and in a number of Asian countries sesame oil is used in cooking while in China it is sold in pharmacies as the Chinese believe it cures cough, joint pains and arthritis. Moreover, the physiotherapy centers prefer sesame oil in the massage because it softens and nourishes the body.
The Muslim physician-philosopher Avicenna (980-1037) said in his renowned work ‘The Code’ that sesame is laxative, mitigates fever, useful for skin coarseness, spleen, and elongates the hair particularly the tree and leaves, flattens acute tumor, useful for burns. If it is drunk, especially with raisin juice, its oil cures phlegmatic and bleeding cough. It also cures nerve, eye, dyspnea, asthma and colon diseases. The Arab botanist-chemist Ibn Baytar (-1248) said it cures skin coarseness, dyspnea and asthma.
Another famous Arab physician-chemist, Dawood Antak, agrees that sesame cures the above-mentioned diseases in addition to obesity, renal disorders and refines the voice.
Sesame contains some minerals such as phosphate, which is useful for the nerves, calcium, for bones and teeth, magnesium, for diabetes, zinc, manganese, potassium, iron and copper. It also contains vitamins B, B2, B6 folic acids and antioxidants.
Sesame is grown in many parts of the world on about 5 million hectares (equivalent to 20,000 square kilometers. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), India is the world’s largest sesame producer, followed by China, Myanmar, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran. 70% of the lands under sesame is in Asia and 28% in Africa. America imports sesame, although it grows the crop, mainly in Texas in the United States.
The electronic knowledge website states that historic indications point out that Abyssinia was the birthplace of sesame wherefrom it moved to India and China and became a common food in south Europe, northeast Africa and south Asia. It is grown in numerous countries of the globe between latitudes 40 DN and 40 DS. Sesame was introduced in the US in the 17th century and spread widely in many Latin American countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Venezuela. In Syria, it is grown on a wide scale in Halab, Ruggah, Hasakah and Der Al-Zour provinces.
End
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