Sesame Case Study

5. Results

5.1 Introduction of Sesame Global Market

Sesame is a short-day plant but also grows well in long-day areas. It thrives best on moderately fertile and well-drained soils (pH ranging from 5.5 to 8.0) and is sensitive to salinity. (Vossen & Mkamilo, 2007) Sesame can be produced both by smallholders and at larger industrial scale. Its production is mainly concentrated in area between northern and southern of equator latitude 45 degree, covering tropical to subtropical regions. The main producers are China, India, Myanmar in Asia, and Sultan, Uganda, Nigeria in Africa and Mexico and Guatemala in South America. Weather condition impact heavily the sesame production regardless of drought or heavy rain. The sesame yield in these countries

(see Figure 4, Zhao Guozhi, 2005) Up to now, as the world's largest importer of sesame seeds, Japan imports an amazing amount every year. It imports almost all its domestically consumed sesame. In 2013, the nation imported 141,573 tons. (Ippei Tanoue, 2014). Its trade accounted 25 percent for the world trade volume. Japan was importing sesame seeds, in the past, mainly from China, followed by Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Tanzania. Sudan and Burma were important souring country to Japan, but due to political instability, they produce and export less. To stabilize supply source, Japan is still looking for more stable supplier, although African countries now export more than half of their sesame seed to Japan. But it is still not enough. Many factors contribute to the variation in market price and supply of sesame. Like in China, who used to be a major exporter of sesame, but the tedious harvesting process, mostly done by hand, discouraged many farmers there from cultivating the crop. Numerous farms have now switched to growing more profitable vegetables. The reduction in domestic yield, along with rising domestic demand for sesame oil, has pushed up sesame

Sudan 281.8 139.3 49.4

India 615.4 138.8 22.5

China 763 85.6 4.0 11.2

Myanmar 315.6 24.9 7.9

Japan 153

Source: Zhao Guozhi, 2005

5.2 Sesame Production and Market in