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The SESAME season is coming to an end and most of the regions that planted the crop in January this year started harvesting from June to July, showing that the crop is prospering well in the country.
Although the seasons for some areas start earlier than others, following the example of exports from previous years, Tanzania’s export cycle begins in early April and peaks in July and slows in November before reaching peak in December.
China remains the world’s leading export destination for our sesame seeds, accounting for 35.9% of the world’s sesame imports.
The other main export destinations of Tanzania are Japan and South Korea and in access to the Chinese market, Tanzania is the fourth leading exporting country behind Sudan, Niger and Ethiopia.
World trade statistics from the International Trade Center (ITC) show that last year, Tanzania exported 108,861 tons of sesame worth 164.5 million dollars.
Among the major exporting countries, sesame from Tanzania attracted a better price as a ton was sold for $ 1,511, behind Niger ($ 1,491 per ton) and Sudan ($ 1,491 ton), only behind Ethiopia ($ 1,586 per ton) in the port of Dar es Salaam.
This year’s export data has yet to be released, but when comparing the monthly performance, it shows that there was a drop in the export of these oilseeds. For example, in July 2019, Tanzania exported $ 10.6 million worth of sesame to China, while in the corresponding month this year only $ 7.7 million of sesame was sold to the same market.
If one thinks about the reason behind this failure, Covid-19 is undoubtedly the main cause. In February 2020, when the world had not yet learned of the severity of the new coronavirus, allowing its economies to operate in a relaxed mode, Tanzania exported $ 1.8 million of sesame to Japan. This is more than double what we exported to the same market in the same month last year: $ 766,000.
With its operations as of 2018, TMX is the first commodity exchange in Tanzania to function as an organized marketplace for buyers and sellers to trade.
Regarding sesame, TMX started getting involved in 2019 in collaboration with the Warehouse Receipt Registration Board (WRRB) and the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC).
However, due to insufficient infrastructure, not all sesame producing regions are involved in this new environment, only regions such as Manyara, Dodoma, Singida, Katavi, Morogoro, Mtwara and Lindi. This means that other regions such as Tabora, Mbeya, Ruvuma, Kigoma and Tanga are free to trade in the old brick and mortar model.
Since its inception, TMX has helped raise farmers’ selling prices by eliminating middlemen in the sesame supply chain while farmers bring their products to a union warehouse for auction.
At this juncture, all companies flock to compete and the highest bidder can take the commodities after paying the required amount.
The best word to explain about TMX is that it is a game changer, especially after entering high-value crops such as sesame, offering farmers a better price and making it easier for companies to buy by creating fewer buying centers. so everyone can easily access.
Furthermore, he has rescued the merchants from corrupt intermediaries who collected their money by promising to accumulate crops in their name only to flee with the money.
Company reports show that billions of shillings have gone down the drain like that. However, through TMX, businesses are more confident than ever about the safety of their money.
The platform has helped increase our global sales, and it appears that if it weren’t for the coronavirus, this year’s exports could have been higher than last year.
Yet for all the grandeur brought about by commodity trading, the system seems to alienate many local businesses.
Most indigenous companies have little capital, which makes it difficult for them to compete with multinationals that tend to outperform them when a sesame auction is held. If there are improvements TMX can make, then it should coordinate well with WRRB and TCDC to improve crop quality and create a safety net for small businesses to compete as well.
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This comes from understanding the fact that not all the sheep in your flock will be able to move at the same pace, and there is no single system that can accommodate all people at the same time.
It is from this context that the US shifted its sole reliance on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to mobilize funds for businesses and instead restructured a state-owned NASDAQ to accommodate startups. like Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, to name a few. – which eventually grew to become the largest companies in the world.
The open secret behind this move was that NASDAQ charged a small admission fee that accommodates cash-trapped companies like Microsoft rather than the NYSE, which was kept with its exorbitant prices that only big companies like IBM could afford.
The author is the National Coordinator of the Tanzania Pulses Network and can be contacted on +255714184314 or by email: [email protected]
