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Brazil’s sesame sector enters 2026 under a scenario of significant adjustment, shaped by climatic, commercial, and strategic factors that directly influenced producers’ planting decisions.
Throughout the 2025/26 crop cycle, irregular rainfall patterns were observed across the main producing regions of the Cerrado, especially in Mato Grosso, Goiás, and Tocantins. The delayed onset of rains affected the definition of the ideal planting window, reducing crop predictability and increasing agronomic risk in several areas.
This scenario resulted in a shorter sesame sowing window, a crop that depends on proper positioning within the agricultural calendar, especially when planted in succession to other crops.
In addition to the weather factor, structural and commercial elements also discouraged planting in 2026, including:
• low availability of forward contracts offered by exporting companies;
• prices considered insufficiently attractive throughout 2025, in a context of tight margins;
• competition from substitute crops such as corn, sorghum, millet, pasture grass, and some types of beans, including black gram, depending on the region.
Although sesame prices were not, by themselves, the sole determining factor, the perception of limited commercial attractiveness throughout 2025 contributed to reducing planting incentives.
Another relevant point is that, with profitability under pressure across virtually all crops, many producers began prioritizing alternatives that offer greater commercial security and better agronomic contribution, especially with regard to soil protection, crop residue formation, and overall production system management.
Given this combination of factors, the market is signaling a trend toward a significant reduction in sesame planted area in Brazil in 2026. Estimates still vary among sector players, but there is already a perception of a relevant contraction, with references to a possible production decline of between 30% and 45%, although there is still no definitive national consolidation.
There are also reports of acreage reduction in specific regions, such as southern Pará, reinforcing the perception of a production adjustment across different producing hubs.
For the international market, this scenario points to a possibly tighter supply of Brazilian sesame throughout 2026, with potential impacts on availability, commercialization pace, and price formation.
IBRAFE will continue to closely monitor the evolution of the crop and share updates with the market as new information is consolidated.
