Up until about 2001 Australians were able to get raw non irradiated sesame seeds and could sprout them. For the last decade or more we have had to import sesame from overseas - all health food places sell either cooked or irradiated sesame from overseas, and exceptions to this are far and few between.

Only two BIG Australian companies have gotten the highly prized Bolivian sesame through customs, and only one company does it regularly, but doing this means lots of money spent.

The process
* Need to buy many tonnes from Bolivia
* Need to transport the tonnes of sesame from South America to North America for science laboritory testing for various undesireable bugs and pests and allergins. This costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
* Need to then spend a few months getting import licences and going through red tape for import.
* Need to then trnsport it from North America to Australia
* Need to then go through red tape for customs.

Trying to get Australian sesame grown again
I spoke with the CEO of one of Australia's largest organic seed companies and suggested we start growing sesame again. I gave him old price lists and estimated a market demand for him to give him confidence the tonnage was there to make it worthwhile for health shops and restuarants.

We started talking to farmers, but no-one wanted to grow sesame anymore. Why? Because those seeds are an "allergen" and it can wipe out farms and seed stock because of "segregation issues".

One national Australian food company once bought tonnes of sesame from Bolivia and l was lucky enough to be the only fellow in Australia to get sproutable sesame, but this was a one off. It looks like no farmer is ever going to take on the risk again in Australia.

Been trying hard for years to make something happen, but the sesame market is history over here.


One last chance for me to be able to get sprouted sesame
There is ONE man and ONE huge company that could still make dreams come true. This company is the only one that goes through the expense and red tape to import Bolivian sesame to Australia, and he buys heaps of it and is the only importer that gets it non irradiated. The good news is that this ONE man l know deals with this ONE company, and he is going to try and set it up where l can get 50kg of this seed (i'll be the only man to be able to get it as a favour). He will tell me this afternoon if my dreams come true....l am nervous about the answer, but this ONE man is going to try his best for me. All this man needs to do is pick up the sacks with his other orders and my 12 year troubles are all over. My fingers are crossed.

When we discussed it l had this HUGE smirk on my face, and l said to him "if you make this happen it's going to be far better than winning the lottery".

You have no idea how much me and a friend have tried to get sesame into Australia for sprouting, we've been at it for years and everytime it has lead no-where. We have spoken to countless people over the years and nothing has worked out. This is my last chance...if it doesn't happen my sesame sprouting days are over. All l need is a yes via email this afternoon and a decade old dream comes true, and when l tell my friends they will almost collapse too.

www.thesproutarian.com

Hope you did have a positive answer

Hi Sproutarian,

Bummer! This might be a long shot, but United Natural Foods Inc.(UNFI) has a distribution center in Australia. I'm not sure if they just collect foods there to ship out, or if they also distribute in Australia.

Anyway, I get 5 pound bags of whole sesame seeds by special order through my health food store. The store gets them from United Natural Trading Co., a subsidiary of UNFI. The seeds are definitely sproutable (I tested before writing). They're a product of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru and/or Bolivia, certified organic by QAI.

You might try asking your health food store if they ever order anything from UNFI or from their subsidiary, United Natural Trading Co. Or ask them if they can.

Or, if you like, you might try calling this US number for United Natural Trading Co. and see if they have any suggestions: 1-732-650-9905.

Or maybe write them a letter:

United Natural Trading Co.
96 Executive Ave.
Edison, NJ 08817

Long shot, but good sesame seeds are an important item.

cynthia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hope you did have a positive answer

I am still waiting on an amswer, but l am nervous about it. I will contact him next week if l haven't heard back. It's hard enough finding foods to sprout in Australia, and if the sesame goes then l have only got sunflower, chia and raw almonds as my main meals for lunch (occasionally have sprouted walnuts,sprouted chestnuts and fermented hazel nut). Sesame was a very important seed.

We also grow poppy seed over here, but the authorities irradiate that too. I would love to sprout poppy, but too many middlemen get in the way and ruin everything. Poppy is the highest land source of calcium and zinc, it's a brilliant seed...packed with nutrients.



suncloud Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Sproutarian,
>
> Bummer! This might be a long shot, but United
> Natural Foods Inc.(UNFI) has a distribution center
> in Australia. I'm not sure if they just collect
> foods there to ship out, or if they also
> distribute in Australia.
>
> Anyway, I get 5 pound bags of whole sesame seeds
> by special order through my health food store.
> The store gets them from United Natural Trading
> Co., a subsidiary of UNFI. The seeds are
> definitely sproutable (I tested before writing).
> They're a product of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru
> and/or Bolivia, certified organic by QAI.

Oh wow, are you from Australia?

Anbyway, l will do some investigations. I have spent years checking sesame with various health foods shops all over Australia and none of them sell sproutable Bolivian sesame, it is all irradiated Mexican sesame. I have tried everything to get something happening but l fall flat on my face every time.


>
> You might try asking your health food store if
> they ever order anything from UNFI or from their
> subsidiary, United Natural Trading Co. Or ask
> them if they can.
l can try. It's interesting how my local health shop can get Bolivian amaranth, but nothing else. Bolivia have the best sprouting seeds i've ever come across.


>
> Or, if you like, you might try calling this US
> number for United Natural Trading Co. and see if
> they have any suggestions: 1-732-650-9905.
>
> Or maybe write them a letter:
>
> United Natural Trading Co.
> 96 Executive Ave.
> Edison, NJ 08817

l'll also contact the U.S address and see if the can give me some information also.

>
> Long shot, but good sesame seeds are an important
> item.

It is a very long shot. Australia is a very different place and getting sproutable seeds from overseas is almost impossible, and the market is very small. l feel 99.99% sure l will fall flat on my face as l always have regarding this.

I generally know the health shop suppliers and i've never come across UNFI. They sound too big for health food shops in Australia to deal with.

Thanks for letting us know.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2013 04:01AM by The Sproutarian Man.

Wow, they irradiate poppy seed? I will have to check mine to see if it sprouts!

How do people grow anything over there in their gardens if all of the seed is irradiated?

suncloud Wrote:

>
> How do people grow anything over there in their
> gardens if all of the seed is irradiated?

Not all seeds are irradiated, but much of o/s stuff is. Even finding local seeds for sprouting is a challenge. Finding affordable quality sprouting seeds is far harder. The U.S has lots of great sprouts, but here is a very different story (smaller population and not many growers).

Well, it looks like dreams may be coming true. A special contact has ordered me a 55 pound sack of sesame seeds that l pick up on the weekend. Hopefully it isn't irradiated, but i'll find out for sure by next monday week. It comes through the large national company who's name l must keep quiet.

Fingers crossed, this could be it. 12 years of searching could well have paid off. Bolivian sesame of course.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2013 03:34AM by The Sproutarian Man.

The Sproutarian Man, Where in the USA do you get seeds from? Thx.

anon101 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Sproutarian Man, Where in the USA do you get
> seeds from? Thx.

I don't. Anything l would get from the U.S will be taken hostage by customs, + l need to pay money to apply for a permit from the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) and pay high costs for freight. Australia is possibly the hardest country in the world to get seeds into.

If this sesame doesn't sprout l might apply for a permit.

Oh I'm sorry. I thought you were in the US.

Well, l tried sprouting the sesame from this special source, and once again it is irradiated and useless to my needs. It was a Mexican white variety and not the Bolivian as previously thought. My chances of now obtaining any sproutable sesame is pretty much nil and now l have lost one of the main foods in my diet along with sproutable brocolli, alfalfa and red clover - a big blow....four major foods gone and the diet getting narrower and narrower.

I've been banging my head against a brick wall for years with the sesame market and sprouting seeds suppliers, but l won't give up. Time to start retracing old steps and try to get some information on sesame and sprouting seeds from the seed federations, talk to farmers, distributers and try to arange some type of deal from a buyer. I'll most likely fail as l always have, but l need to keep trying.

Here is an industry report for Australian sesame. As we can see there are great problems in the industry for growing the crop such as local equipment not being suitable for harvesting, weed problems, growing problems, droubt, sesame splitting, marketing strategies, competition and many things.

Australian sesame conference report 1995 - 2005
[www.nt.gov.au]

BUT....much to my surprise and probably most buyers in Australia....there actually IS sesame farming going on in Australia. But who is buying this stuff??? This is an old path l went down years ago and as usual l failed to make any inroads. l could get Australian sesame, but l need to buy at least 1.500 tonnes.
[www.alibaba.com]

I'm going to have to contact the supplier and ask if he can tell me who he sells to so l can try to work out a deal with the buyer to get 100 pounds of it.

Another possibility is to contact the Australian Oilseeds Federation and hopefully get information and leads off them.
[www.australianoilseeds.com]

Another avenue l once went down was trying to get a sack of sesame from my old Melrose friends (they sell sesame paste nationally), but even they couldn't help me because the sesame had been cooked before they purchased it and had no control over the intervention.
[www.melrosehealth.com.au]

See...this is what always happens. l can spend weeks and months on this at a time and get no-where. l've spent years on this and come to dead ends each time. All l want is to get a sack of sesame that sprouts as a side purchase from a company, and l know someone does have it. All l want to do is drive up to the wearhouse, hand someone the money and be gone with my big sack of sesame - how hard is it? The problem is that their accounting systems are set up in a certain way and they can't do that type of arrangement, but what if they write the sesame sack off as a loss?

Along with sesame, l need to be doing the same thing with red clover seeds and alfalfa.

If all that fails l will need to spend big bucks to import sprouting seeds and apply for permits etc. This will make buying sprouting seeds massively expensive and uneconomical, but l refuse to order from a local company that wants to sell me thousands of little packets instead of once large sack of sprouting seeds.

Sproutman sell clover seeds for $67.00 for 10 pounds, but in Australia with a HUGE discount l was paying close to $400 for 10 pounds. We need to change the marketplace somehow and wipe out all these middlemen with their silly rules so sprouting becomes easy and affordable for everyone - l am trying.

Just rang up Huile Trading Company Pty Ltd who buy all the Australian grown sesame and had an interesting conversation with a lovely lady. She told me that NO-ONE has sproutable sesame in Australia (me excepted) and no-ove ever will. She's been in the industry for 30 years and knows what's going on. She said that all Australian sesame is deep buried so it is killed (can't sprout it) and then 99% of it is exported. They kill the sesame because the sesame industry has investigated millions in growing this troublesome crop (see sesame report in previous link) and don't want any competition.
[nearyouau.com]

I said that l am just a bloke who likes to sprout sesame at home and all l want is 200 pounds so me and a few sproutarians can sprout it at home. I said we are no threat...all we want to do is drive up to the warehouse and pick up a few sacks once a year. She said she will talk to a fellow and have him call me back, but l am not holding my breath. If they can slip me some sesame on the side it would be a dream come true.

Later l call the up VVRS Australia, but l am sure l will get the same response.
[www.vvrsaustralia.com.au]

Sprouting sesame in Australia is doomed, it is NEVER going to happen. These two companies are the big boys and the picture is quite clear - the market is locked tight because they have spend millions investing inbto the market.

www.thesproutarian.com

That is so sad!

US did something similar a few years ago when they mandated treatment of raw almonds. But thank goodness nothing else that I know of yet.

Hi TSM
did you get some good news at last?

blessings
Cynthia

cynthia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi TSM
> did you get some good news at last?
>
> blessings
> Cynthia

l've contacted some of the big guns in the industry and it is not looking good. The market is completely locked. l am going to suggest they put me under special contract whereby l am given rights to use their sproutable sesame on the condition that l am not able to distribute sesame to anyone else so their industry is kept protected from competition, otherwise the sesame project has been a massive failure.

On the other hand, things are looking up in regards to the red clover, brocolli and alfalfa markets. I've located a farm that sells these highly sort after seeds and l am going to try and do a bulk deal with them.

In regards to the other company refusing to sell me anymore bulk sprouting seeds, l am hoping to change his mind on this because he has potentially a lot of business to lose by such a policy. l am writing up a `sprouting plan' whereby we get more people into sprouting and we arrange a tour of speakers and a better way to sell the seeds. If he doesn't come to the party l will try to enter the seed market myself and offer a better business model to buy from.

Still haven't given up on the getting sproutable sesame seeds in Australia. Been trying for about 12 years and l am still coming up with ideas.

One thing l will try to do is get a national seed farm/company to import Bolivian sesame like they do with some others seeds. I've written to the CEO and am hoping he will contact me with good news. The market is definitely there as l have showed him.

If this doesn't work l have another plan.

www.thesproutarian.com