HL Agro Assesses the Indian Sesame Market Growth, Share & Trade Prospects in 2021

Sesame seed is preferred world over for its taste, aroma, colour, crunchiness, and nutrients. Considered as one of the wonder foods of nature, sesame hosts an incredible array of nutrients including 50% fat, 23% carbohydrates, 18% protein and 12% dietary fibre. Increasingly, sesame seed usage has spread beyond bread and confectionary to a variety of food preparations as an important food ingredient.

World sesame seed production is estimated at around 4. 8 million tons with 10 countries - Myanmar, India, China, Tanzania, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and Niger accounting for over 80% of the production. Africa collectively accounts for over 45% of the crop and in the last 10 years has grown in stature as a fast-growing supplier of sesame seed to the world market.

Of the global production, over two million tons are exported every year mainly to China (one million tons), Japan (150,000 tons), Turkey (150,000 tons), European Union (150,000 tons), South Korea (100,000 tons) and Vietnam (100,000 tons). USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE are other importers. Natural sesame seed and hulled are two popular forms in which most of the trade takes place.

INDIAN SESAME CROP 2020:

In a year of a record sowing and an anticipated higher crop, the sesame seed growers are staring at an uncertain future following the coronavirus-driven global trade disruptions. Farmers from Gujarat hopped onto the sesame-seed bandwagon this summer sowing season with cultivation area of the oilseed rising by three times over the past year. showed sesame seed area jumped from 18,887 hectares (ha) last year to 58,178 ha this summer sowing season, which usually begins in February. Experts look at this rise in acreage as a promising bet made by farmers on the oilseed with ample water availability and favourable climate.

The State Agriculture Department data.

Gujarat has estimated over two-fold rise in summer sesame seed crop this year at 24,490 tonnes (as per third advance estimates), which was 11,650 tonnes in the previous year. In Gujarat, Saurashtra dominates summer sesame seed cultivation with sowing area concentrated in the districts of Junagadh, Rajkot and Surendra Nagar.