The market for sesame seeds is quite vast with Japan and China as the major importers of the seeds. Countries like Turkey, India, Poland, and the Netherlands have also traded with Nigeria in the past.
“If you take the producing states which starts for about 28 states producing, with each state producing, putting additional 50,000 hectares of land under cultivation, that’s about 5 million tonnes in one year. If we are able to do that, we get about three times more than what we are earning today,” Mr Balogun said.Data shows that 90 per cent of the sesame seed produced in the country is exported abroad.
“It’s very very profitable. It’s the number one exported agro product in the country, and for its production, you don’t need to carry out too much work on it. You spend a little and gain more. There’s a market for sesame. We are not looking for buyers as far as sesame is concerned,” he said. “Nigeria sesame value chain includes production and processing. And the processing is divided into two. We can process oil by dehauling, and process into flour that is used in the confectionery. Our full course is to set up dehauling plants, oil processing plants, and flour processing plants. We already have about three companies dehauling right now,” Mr Balogun said.