Ethiopian sesame producers and exporters have expressed their keen intent to further penetrate the Chinese market amid growing demand from Chinese consumers.Sisay Asmare, President of Ethiopian Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices Processors-Exporters Association (EPOSPEA), told Xinhua recently that China has been a major destination for Ethiopia’s sesame seed export in the past decade, as about 60 to 70 percent of its total sesame export goes to China. “For Ethiopia, the Chinese sesame market is a window to the global market. The Chinese market is very important to us as it is very big. This significant market is a big deal for us because what we produce, especially sesame, goes to China,” he said.Between 2018 to 2021, China imported close to 282,554 tons of Ethiopia’s sesame seed, making it the largest importer of the commodity, according to figures from EPOSPEA. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and security concerns in parts of Ethiopia, the East African country’s sesame seed export to China was further augmented during the Ethiopian 2019/20 fiscal year which ended on Juny 7, 2020, reaching 99,015 tons, according to the association.China was also the largest importer of Ethiopia’s sesame seed during the Ethiopian 2020/21 fiscal year with 92,301 tons, according to the association.“Our Humera and Wolega sesame seed brands are very well known throughout the Chinese market,” he said. According to Asmare, events such as the China International Import Expo are among the prime opportunities for Ethiopian exporters to maintain their stronghold in the Chinese sesame market by forging partnership opportunities with their Chinese counterparts.“Such events are very important to us. When they are organizing these events, there are very big and interested companies; and we attended so many times and we got very good experiences,” he said.Addressing a high-level virtual event that was held in April this year to promote Ethiopian sesame products in China, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to China Teshome Toga Chanaka said Ethiopia is not only one of the sesame growing and exporting countries in Africa, but also has high-quality sesame seed varieties suitable for wide range applications.Sesame, an ancient oil crop adapted to tropics and subtropics around the world, is one of the major commercial grain crops produced in Ethiopia. Sesame, together with coffee, is one of Ethiopia’s top export commodities. In March, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange disclosed that the East African country generated 2.9 billion U.S. dollars from the export of agricultural products, mainly coffee, sesame seed and spices, during the first seven months of Ethiopia’s 2021/2022 fiscal year.In addition to sesame seed, Ethiopia is also penetrating China’s booming coffee market as the Asian country becomes its eighth largest importer of coffee over the last ten months.Figures from the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority showed that China has imported 5,879.34 tons of Ethiopian coffee over the first ten months of the current fiscal year, enabling the East African nation to earn 30.4 million U.S. dollars, up by 31 percent from the same period in the last fiscal year.