Sesame Seed Export from Nigeria: Prices and Process

Sesame seed is one of Nigeria’s quiet export success stories — a top foreign-exchange earner among non-oil crops. For farmers and exporters, the price and the dollar rate together decide what a bag is really worth.

How the price is set

Sesame is priced on the global market in dollars per tonne; the local naira price tracks that world price converted at the exchange rate, minus the margins of aggregators and exporters. When the global price rises or the naira weakens, the farm-gate price in naira climbs — part of why sesame matters for Nigeria’s dollar inflows.

What moves the price

• Global demand from China, Japan, Turkey and the Middle East.
• Quality and purity — cleaner, better-graded seed earns more.
• The dollar and the naira — a weaker naira lifts the local price even when the world price is flat.

Getting paid as an exporter

Export proceeds come in foreign currency and must be repatriated through the banking system — the counterpart to Form M on the import side. Convert at the live USD to Naira rate rather than a guessed one, and keep your documentation clean.