Quality
The process
A specification is a contract.
We treat it like one.
Quality in sesame is a sequence of controls, each one checkable. This page is the whole sequence, the same seven stations as every container we ship.
ST 01Farm gate
Bought where it grows, from growers we return to every season.
ST 02Aggregation
Moisture and admixture checked before a lot travels a kilometre.
ST 03Cleaning & grading
De-stoned, cleaned, graded — colour-sorted for premium grades.
ST 04Laboratory
Independent analysis on every lot: physical, chemical, microbiological.
Physical
Moisture · Purity · Admixture · Coloured seeds · Infestation
Chemical
FFA · Oil content · Aflatoxin B1 & total · Pesticides · Heavy metals
Microbiological
Salmonella · E. coli · TPC · Yeast & mould · Enterobacteriaceae
ST 05Bagging
New bags marked to your order; containers lined and sealed under supervision.
ST 06Port of Lagos
Apapa / Tin Can Island. Inspection at buyer's option: SGS, Intertek, Cotecna.
ST 07Your berth
Documents couriered ahead. FOB Lagos · CFR / CIF main ports.
Testing runs at independent, ISO 17025-accredited laboratories, and we will happily split samples with your nominated lab. Pre-shipment inspection at the buyer's option: SGS, Intertek or Cotecna, named in the contract.
Which analysis is binding
Quality is judged at shipment.
We contract on FOSFA terms. Under those forms the goods are warranted to meet the agreed description and specification at the time and place of shipment, and the specification itself is established through the contract's sampling and analysis clause: samples drawn and sealed at loading by FOSFA member superintendents, analysed by FOSFA member analysts, with sealed sets retained by both sides for three months against arbitration.
The testing we run earlier, at aggregation and again after cleaning, is our own commercial discipline. It decides what we buy and how we store it. It is never offered to you as the contractual number, because seed sampled in November is not the same document as seed loaded in January. What binds is drawn from the parcel that actually goes into your container.
FOSFA leaves the exact basis to the parties, including whether shipment analysis is final and how samples are drawn and settled, so we agree it in writing before quoting rather than leaving it to be discovered in a dispute. Tell us the basis you normally trade on and we will quote against it.
Documents
The set that travels with every container.
Export cargo is only as good as its paperwork: prepared in-house, checked twice, couriered ahead of the vessel. Request any document
Sourcing sesame for the 2026/27 season?
New-crop arrivals begin in late November. Forward bookings open from August. Send us your specification and destination, and you will have a formal quotation within 48 hours.