Sesame drying systems in Burkina Faso
What the crop demands, what the country imposes, and what that means for capacity.
Sesame has become one of Burkina’s significant export earners over the last fifteen years, grown largely by smallholders in the east and centre-west and aggregated by traders. Quality is lost at the aggregation step rather than in the field: lots are combined at different moistures, and the whole consignment then grades on its wettest fraction.
The situation in Burkina Faso
Landlocked, so every tonne of finished product travels by road to Abidjan, Lomé or Tema before it reaches a ship. That single fact shapes the whole processing case: fresh fruit cannot make the journey, dried fruit can, and the margin sits with whoever removes the water before the truck leaves. Grid supply outside the two main cities is intermittent enough that a drying plan built around electric heat is a drying plan built around a generator.
Growing regions. Cascades, Hauts-Bassins and Comoé — Orodara, Banfora and Bobo-Dioulasso
What sesame drying demands
Sesame is a conditioning job rather than a drying one: the seed comes off the field near its target already, and the task is to bring a whole lot evenly to 6–8 % without cracking the seed coat. Buyers reject on free fatty acid and on foreign matter, both of which track how the seed was dried and handled.
Harvest calendar
October to December, following the end of the rains. The crop is harvested into a drying period, which is helpful, but the threshing floors are shared with dust and the seed picks up foreign matter.
The working campaign window as the trade runs it. It shifts a fortnight either way with the rains.
Process parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Drying temperature | 40–45 °C |
| Final moisture | 6–8 % |
| Yield (fresh : dried) | 1.2 : 1 |
| Cycle time | 4–8 h |
Sizing starting points from ordinary processing practice, not a validated recipe for your product. Confirm against your own intake and your buyer’s specification.
Worked sizing example
For a unit taking 12 tonnes of fresh product a day, at a yield of 1.2 : 1:
Illustrative figures calculated from the yield and campaign window above. They size a conversation; they do not describe any existing installation.
Fuel available in Burkina Faso
Burkina combines cashew shell (Cascades, Hauts-Bassins), abundant cotton stalk after the cotton campaign, and shea cake. Mango peel supplements during the mango campaign itself.
- Base load. Cashew shell · Cotton stalk · Shea cake and shell
- Supplement. Corn cob · Groundnut shell · Sesame stalk · Dried mango peel
See all 27 fuels and their properties
Market and buyer requirements
Asia, principally China, Japan and Turkey, for oil and confectionery. Buyers reject on free fatty acid, on foreign matter and on moisture above about 8 %, all of which track how the seed was dried and handled rather than how it was grown.
Explore further
The systems that hold this profile
Other crops in Burkina Faso
Mango · Shea · Raw cashew nut · Tomato · Onion
Sesame drying elsewhere
Frequently asked questions
Is sesame drying or conditioning?
Conditioning, mostly. The seed comes off the field near its target already, and the task is bringing a whole lot evenly to 6–8 % without cracking the seed coat — a 4 to 8 hour cycle at 40–45 °C, not the long descent a fruit needs.
Why do sesame lots get rejected?
Usually free fatty acid or foreign matter rather than moisture as such, but both track drying and handling. Seed held above 8 % moisture during aggregation develops FFA, and a lot grades on its worst fraction rather than its average — so one wet delivery can pull down a container.
What scale makes sense for a sesame aggregator?
Sesame is high-throughput and low-ratio — about 1.2 tonnes of field seed per tonne finished — so a 12 t/day intake is a modest aggregator rather than a large one, producing around 10 tonnes of conditioned seed a day on a short cycle.
Size a unit in Burkina Faso
Tell us your daily fresh volume and target output, and we will size the chambers, the burner and the fuel available around your site.
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