This section contains:
- Asian Vegetables
- Australian Native Foods
- Tropical Fruit
- Coffee
- Essential Oils
- Jojoba
- Olives
- Pulses
- Sesame Seed
- Tea
- Tree Nuts
- Truffles
- Wildflowers & Native Plants
- Herb and Spice
Sesame Seed
Synopsis – Australian Industry
Year |
Gross value of Prod’n |
Exports |
Imports |
Estimated number of producers |
|
2006-2007 |
14 |
74 |
15,967 |
|
Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an ancient oil crop supplying seeds for confectionery purposes, edible oil, paste (tahini), cake and flour. It is adapted to both tropical and temperate conditions and is considered to be a drought-tolerant crop. The sesame seed industry in Australia appears to be aimed at producing so-called ‘sweet’ seed types, used on products such as muesli bars. The sweet types can attract prices 50-100 per cent higher than conventional types.
Sesame is grown in the Northern Territory, Queensland and northern New South Wales, mainly as a dryland crop. Australian production reached 620 tonnes in 2000-01 but only very small quantities have been produced in recent years, mainly in Queensland. The decline reflects extended drought in eastern Australia and marketing problems in the Northern Territory. Northern Territory production comes from experimental plots and this production ceased in 2005.
Australia exports very small quantities of locally produced sesame seed and is a substantial importer of seed oil and tahini. The total value of Australian imports of the main sesame seed products (seed, oil and tahini) was $16 million in 2006-07, 65 per cent of which was in the form of seed and 26 per cent as oil. With sesame seed, Australia’s main supplying countries were India (71 per cent of the total volume of imports over the three years to 2006-07), Mexico (15 per cent), China (7 per cent) and Guatemala (6 per cent). The main suppliers of sesame oil were Singapore (32 per cent), China (27 per cent) and Hong Kong (11 per cent), while Lebanon supplied nearly 80 per cent of the total volume of tahini imports.
Background
World production of sesame seed was over 3.2 million tonnes in the three years to 2006. The main producers are China (21 per cent of world production in the three years to 2006), India (19 per cent), Myanmar (17 per cent) and Sudan (9 per cent). It is a high value crop, trading at US$500 to $600 a tonne on the world export market in recent years. Like most agricultural commodities, there is a strong downward trend in this price in constant dollars, reflecting the impact of ongoing productivity improvements.
Around a quarter of total world production of sesame seed enters world trade as seed.
