The Ghana Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture Lending (GIRSAL) aims to rake in US$500million of sesame seeds export revenue over the next three years.
This aligns with GIRSAL’s five-year strategic vision to promote the development of high potential agricultural value chains in chili and sesame production, among others, in a bid to enhance the country’s export capacity.
GIRSAL’s sesame pilot project site is at Keyeme-Ziope in Volta Region and the company believes Ghana has what it takes to produce the commodity in commercial quantity for export.
The pilot project is designed to develop a scalable and investable business case for sesame seed production in the country. GIRSAL forecasts exporting about US$500m of sesame seed annually to the global market through this initiative.
Currently, GIRSAL is cultivating 10 acres as part of its initial trial phase and plans scaling up to 200 acres between July and December this year.
Over the next three years, the company aims at expanding production to 50,000 acres through collaborations with agribusinesses and partner banks.
Sesame is a fast-emerging high value commodity in Ghana and the broader West African sub-region.
While the crop has been traditionally dominated by producers in countries like Sudan, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, Ghana has seen growing interest in sesame cultivation – particularly across the middle belt and northern regions.
Despite earning some US$12.5million of export revenue in 2016 according to GIRSAL, Ghana’s sesame export volumes drastically declined to 510.86 metric tonnes… constituting a paltry US$278,900 in the year 2023.
This decline was largely due to limited production data, technical capacity and policy support. GIRSAL’s Chief Operating Officer, Samuel Yeboah, indicated that GIRSAL recognises the need to reverse this trend and has therefore initiated this project to unlock the crop’s full commercial and export potential.
The global market demand for sesame seed is US$5.6billion per annum. Nigeria cultivates about 3.6 percent of the commodity while Ghana is producing less than one percent of global market share.
The US, Japan, Turkey and China are big markets for sesame seed and its value added products. Sesame is used to produce essential oils and cosmetics for medicinal purposes, among others.
