Posted on August, 15, 2016 at 08:36 am
By BILL OKETCH
Prices of sesame (commonly known as simsim) have dropped from Shs4,500 per kilogramme to Shs 2,500 in northern Uganda. Experts attribute falling prices to dissatisfaction of local and regional traders with the quality of simsim they buy from the farmers in the region.
Simsim is one of the non-traditional crops, which are exported from the country.
Uganda is the world’s fifth largest producer and sixteenth largest exporter of simsim, which is sold in the Middle East, Far East and Europe. The exports has risen more than 300 per cent since 2010 to a value of $55m (or 2.4 per cent of total exports) in 2014. There is increasing demand in regional and global markets.
The share of formal sesame exports to total production increased from 3.4 per cent in 2004 to 17.8 per cent in 2013 with more than 77 per cent of household produce being sold.
Market trends indicate that higher prices and returns can be realised per unit exported to Europe compared to the Middle East and Far East.
But Uganda is not fully maximising the European market due to the more stringent certification and standardisation requirements the exports are yet to meet. The failure to meet the stringent market standards is an impediment to exploring the potential that simsim promises in improving household and national income.
Farmers’ experience
Margaret Angom, 49, has been growing sesame for both domestic consumption and commercial purposes since 1984. The resident of Atikpot village, Agali Sub-county in Lira District, uses hand hoe for land preparation and weeding, and plants by broadcasting method.
After harvesting, she dries and threshes sesame on bare ground smeared with cow dung. This practice is widespread in the northern and eastern regions, which are the main centres of production of this crop.
Farmers engage in this practice because they are not aware that they affect the quality of simsim, which results in low prices.
When Angom takes the most traded simsim variety (of off-white colour) to a nearby Adyaka market, she finds out that the price has dropped drastically.
This is because poor post-harvest handling practices led to contamination with soil and dung during threshing and winnowing.
The problem of cleanliness arises during shelling and drying stages, according to another farmer Lestina Acen.
“I thresh and dry simsim on tarpaulin. But sometimes I do it on the bare ground,” she says.
Potential to be exploited
The quality is poor because of no standards, low awareness of standards and how to meet them. However, Evelyn Ongom of Acandyang village, Barr Sub-county in Lira District, says the market for simsim is available even within the community.
“I carry mine on bicycle and take to Lira Town where buyers offer good prices,” she says, while noting that lack of agricultural standards in place has led to falling market prices.
There is a lot of potential in the international markets but currently what was trading at Shs4,500 per kilogramme in Lira last year, is sold at Shs2,500.
Traders say they pay less because they have to clean the simsim to improve its quality.
Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (Seatini) also notes that the huge drop in prices to the lack of standards in place and poor quality of the product. In a bid to save farmers from this situation, it supported Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to develop a national sesame standard.
The standard explains the quality parameters that have to be met in order to meet with those international market requirements.
“As Seatini and Trade Mark, we are promoting the standards that we have developed with UNBS so that traders and farmers take them on to improve the quality of the products and enable them get better incomes,” says Lina Asiimwe, Seatini’s programme officer.
UNBS recently approved 195 standards under Section 15 of the UNBS Act, as amended and among them is the sesame standard. Of these, 74 are under food and agriculture, 67 are under engineering, 17 under chemicals and consumer products, and 37 under management and services.
One of the reasons for developing standards is to ensure that the health and safety of consumers is protected.
Adopt standards
Sesame specification, with the code US 1628:2016, is the standard that aims to provide the necessary quality product requirements and hygiene practices that must be followed to achieve a high quality product.
“So, if our farmers and traders can comply with the set requirements within the standards they will have no problem exporting and accessing the markets globally,” says Pamela Akwap of UNBS.
There is no standard at the East African level (Uganda inclusive) for sesame. But even when there is no standard, traders and farmers are supposed to comply with the international requirements in order to be able to access markets that offer good prices.
However the farmers are not well versed with meeting the international standards as shown by their practices. A national standard will help them improve once it is disseminated and adopted by the target group.
Source: The Monitor