Sesame Seed Exports from Pakistan: Grades, Uses, and What International Buyers Should Ask For

By Sufyan · 2026-08-30 · 5 min read

Pakistan shipped over 320,000 metric tons of sesame seeds in the 2022-23 season. Most of it went to China. And honestly, five years ago if you'd told me Pakistan would be one of the top three sesame suppliers to Chinese crushers, I'd have laughed.

But here we are.

I've been exporting agro commodities out of Karachi for years now, and sesame is the crop that surprised me most. It quietly overtook a lot of our traditional exports in volume. Farmers in Punjab — especially in districts like Layyah, Bhakkar, and Mianwali — figured out that sesame is drought-tolerant, cheap to grow, and pays better per acre than cotton did last cycle. So they switched. Big time.

If you're buying sesame internationally and Pakistan is on your radar (it should be), here's what I wish more buyers understood before they sent me their first inquiry.

The Grades Nobody Explains Properly

When buyers ask for "Pakistani sesame," they usually mean one of four things. And the confusion in terminology is where most disputes start.

Natural White Sesame Seeds — this is the flagship. Purity typically ranges from 98% to 99.95%, oil content sits around 48-52%, and moisture should be below 6%. The whiter it looks, the higher the price. Chinese buyers pay a premium for anything above 99.9% purity with admixture under 0.05%. Middle Eastern bakeries and tahini producers in Jordan and Lebanon usually accept 99% purity and focus more on oil content and taste profile.

Hulled / Dehulled White Sesame — the seeds go through a mechanical or water-based hulling process to remove the outer skin. This is what ends up on hamburger buns in Europe, in sushi crackers in Japan, and in high-end tahini. Pakistani hullers have improved a lot in the past three years, but I'll say this plainly — Ethiopian hulled sesame still has a slight edge on uniformity. We're closing the gap, though.

Natural Brown / Red Sesame — mostly grown in Sindh. Used for oil pressing, halva production, and traditional bakery in South Asia and parts of Africa. Cheaper. Higher oil yield sometimes, but less visual appeal for finished food products.

Black Sesame — smaller volume out of Pakistan, but growing. Korean and Japanese buyers ask for this. Also Chinese medicinal buyers.

What Your Contract Should Actually Say

Here's the thing — most disputes I've mediated (or been dragged into) come from vague contracts. "Good quality Pakistani sesame" means nothing. I've seen containers rejected in Qingdao port because the buyer assumed 99.5% purity was standard and the seller assumed 98% was fine.

Write down every one of these:

And please — specify crop year. New crop from Pakistan hits the market roughly October through December. Old crop after March gets progressively drier and darker. Both have their uses. Don't assume.

I got this wrong myself in 2021. Sent an old-crop shipment to a European buyer who'd assumed new crop without writing it in the contract. We took the hit. Now every PI has crop year in bold.

Who Buys What, and Why

China takes the bulk of Pakistani sesame — probably 70% of our total export volume — mostly for oil crushing and processed foods. They're volume buyers. Price-sensitive. Quality flexible if the price adjusts.

Turkey is the second big destination. Turkish tahini and halva industry runs on imported sesame, and Pakistani white sesame competes directly with Sudanese and Ethiopian origin there. Ports of choice: Mersin and Izmir.

The Middle East — UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan — takes a mix of natural and hulled. Bakeries, confectionery, tahini. Smaller volumes but better margins for us as exporters.

South Korea and Japan want premium — 99.95% purity, tight moisture, and strict pesticide compliance. Small volume, high margin. If you're a specialty importer, this is where the money lives.

Europe is the toughest customer. Not because of price, but because of documentation. Aflatoxin certificates, pesticide MRLs, non-GMO declarations, sometimes organic. Germany, Netherlands, Greece — they'll pay well, but they will test everything twice.

Africa is interesting. Egypt and Nigeria buy Pakistani sesame for both re-export and domestic oil production. Prices are competitive but payment terms need care — I've had good and bad experiences here, and I won't name names.

A Few Things I'd Tell a First-Time Buyer

Ask for the origin district. "Punjab sesame" is fine as a label but a good exporter should tell you whether it's from Layyah, Bhakkar, or Kot Addu — because the oil content and appearance actually varies. Layyah is known for whiter, cleaner seed. Kot Addu tends toward higher oil.

Ask about the cleaning line. Old gravity separators produce inconsistent purity. Modern optical sorters (Buhler, Satake, Anysort) push purity above 99.9% consistently. If your supplier can't tell you what machine cleans your seed, that's a signal.

Ask for a pre-shipment sample from the actual lot — not a "typical" sample from last month's stock. This one small thing prevents most disputes.

And don't overlook fumigation and packaging. Sesame in 25 kg or 50 kg PP bags, palletized or loose loaded, aluminum phosphide fumigation with a proper certificate. If you're going to EU or Japan, ask about MB-free fumigation because methyl bromide is banned or restricted in most of those destinations.

One last thing — sesame prices from Pakistan swing hard between October and February. New crop arrivals, Chinese Lunar New Year buying, and Turkish demand all overlap. If you're a serious annual buyer, contract for the year in October and lock volumes. Spot buying in January usually costs you 8-12% more.

What's the volume you're looking at, and which port?

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