The top exporters of sesame seeds are India, Burma, Tanzania, China and Pakistan. The top importers are China, Turkey, Japan, South Korea and Israel. If you haven’t noticed, China happens to be an importer as well as an exporter. This is because China needs to import oil-grade sesame, while it exports food-grade sesame. The largest producers of sesame however are Tanzania, India and Sudan in that order.

Sesame is thought to be the oldest oil-seed crop known to humanity and is called a survivor crop. It has the ability to grow in areas that do not support other crops – in high heat, in drought conditions, excessive rains or almost no rains at all; and it needs little farming support.

Sesame seeds are used as food all over the world. Most cuisines of the world use them as garnishing – for example sesame seeds are sprinkled on bagels and breads in Europe while in Japan they are used on sushi. Other parts of the world use sesame as a food ingredient like in ‘Tahini’ which is a dip that is made out of sesame.