NATURE OF BUSINESS
OUR PRODUCT RANGE
– Sesame seeds
– Sesame cooking oil
– Sesame Glycerin and skin oils which is mostly used for burns and wounds
– Sesame butter
Our main product line is to register farmers, which database has 20 000 at the moment and is still growing exponentially, group them twenty per group and train them how to farm sesame. We will buy the sesame seeds from the farmers and sell to the ready market. Farmers who have Sesame Farmers’ cards will buy the seeds at subsidized prices and the board will also regulate and institute all controls with regards to the planting, training and trade of sesame in the region.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Farming: Farmers are constantly trained and checked by Agricultural extension officers who will be equipped with both the knowledge and mobility to reach each and every group or farmer regularly. Seeds will be color sorted after the next phase/season’s production, and the third season will see us roasting the seeds, and manufacturing the end products aforementioned to add value, empower the communities thereby creating employment.
The Processes: We will initially start with a limited number of farmers who will be required to farm at most three hectares each and the following season will see us doubling the number of farmers or hectares and the process will follow the same pattern while more and more consumers become aware of the advantages of health living from sesame seeds.
Markets
Sesame can be exported raw or it can be sorted, roasted and dehaulled and then bagged for the market. The following major countries in the world import SESAME: Japan, Egypt, China, The UAE, Canada, The EU, South Africa, Asian Countries, Australia, New Zealand.
Total consumption by the Japanese market is around 160 000 tons annually with the bulk of their imports coming from the Ethiopian market. At the moment there is no company in Southern Africa doing colour sorting, roasting and dehaulling of which if this is tapped, the prices are bound to increase. Raw Sesame average prices in Asia range between USD $1200-$1700/ton. The same countries are also major markets for Sesame oil. The cake can be much consumed by the South African beef market. Because of the nutritious-ness of Sesame cake, prices of the cake range between $550-$600/ton.
Currently people from Mozambique who are not aware of the exports and other uses are buying the stock from Zimbabwe for brewing beer at a price of $1.50/kg
Benefits & Uses of Sesame
MINIATURE RESEARCH
Sesame seeds are mainly used in confectionery and oil extraction. They produce expensive oils which cost a minimum of $10/litre in the developed world. The oil is also used in the treatment and production of ointments for burns and wounds. They also make butter which highly nutritious.
Low G.I.
Sesame has a very low G.I. (close to 0% Low colestral fat content) which is comparable to olive oil. The residue or cake after oil pressing is used as livestock feeds. (i.e.) poultry, cattle and has an average price of $600/ton.
By comparison, sesame has got higher oil content. It is highly recommended because it contains anti-oxidants which promote production of antibodies in humans (white blood cells).
This plant is a cash crop for semi-arid areas and can uplift the livelihood of peasant farmers who are growing smaller produce and selling in Mozambique (Expunge /Beira) and shipped to China and other Far East countries. Communal farmers in most of Zimbabwe’s arid areas were mostly reliant on cotton production as their main cash crop which they started growing in the late 1960’s but now the soil fertility has been used up and yields have also dwindled and prices have declined to all-time lows of $0.30-$0.35 per kilogram. The added advantage of sesame is that it’s a legume and therefore increases soil fertility unlike cotton and tobacco which actually degrade the soil. Therefore Sesame can actually be a good resource of nitrogen in crop rotation.
CONTRACT FARMING
Contract farming in Zimbabwe is whereby The Board gives or enter into an agreement with the farmer, supply inputs (seeds) during the growing season and over extension services so that The Board will buy the entire yield at harvest time.
At the moment the two most contracted cash crops are cotton and tobacco. Tobacco is in the high rainfall regions and cotton is for the semi-arid or low rainfall areas. Farmers are grouped in groups and have a committee which has a co-ordinator and do encourage each other to avoid defaulters who may affect the group’s next season contract/loans or supply of inputs.