A sesame seeds processor in India cleans, sorts or hulls the seed in its own plant. An HPS groundnut exporter in India may shell and grade nuts itself or buy them from a sheller and arrange the shipment. A groundnut de-oiled cake exporter sells the cake left after oil is pressed out, which is a feed ingredient, not a food nut.
The terms overlap in marketing, so it helps to separate who processes, who exports and what each can promise.
Processor or exporter?
A processor owns the machines. For sesame that means cleaning lines, optical sorters and, for hulled seed, hulling and drying equipment. For groundnut it means shellers, graders and sorting lines, often with hand picking for HPS grade.
An exporter holds the export licence and handles documents and shipping. Some exporters are also processors; others buy the goods and resell. A processor controls the product, and an exporter that is not a processor controls only the paperwork and the choice of supplier. How to tell a trader from a manufacturer shows how to check.
What a good processor should hold
Look for food safety certification such as HACCP or a GFSI-benchmarked scheme, and ask how it controls aflatoxin in groundnut and salmonella in sesame. Which certifications a peanut or sesame processor should have lists the common ones.
Ask also about storage. Sesame and groundnut are oil-rich and go rancid or mouldy if held warm and damp, so a plant with covered, ventilated stores and stock rotation protects your lot between purchase and loading. Ask how long the seed or nuts in your lot have been stored.
Certificates are a starting point. Ask for lot-level test reports for the last few shipments, and ask what the plant does with a lot that fails.
De-oiled cake: a different buyer
De-oiled cake is made from oilseeds after the oil is extracted. Groundnut cake is used in animal feed as a protein source. Buyers of cake care about protein, oil left in the cake, moisture and, for groundnut, aflatoxin, since it can occur in the nuts that were pressed. De-oiled cake for feed explains the product.
Cake is bulky and prone to moisture pick-up, so packing and container preparation matter. Ask how the cake is packed, how the container is lined and whether a moisture reading is taken at loading.
Feed rules differ from food rules, and importing countries often require health certificates and testing for feed. Confirm what applies with your regulator or customs broker. Castor cake is not used for feed and should not be confused with groundnut cake.
Questions to put to a supplier
- Do you shell, sort or hull in your own plant, and where is it?
- What are the aflatoxin and salmonella test results for your last lots?
- How do you sample a lot, and who tests it?
- How do you keep nuts and seeds dry in storage and in the container?
- For cake, what are the protein and moisture results for the lot I would receive?
Next step
We find and audit sesame and groundnut processors, test lots and supervise loading. We do not publish prices, as they depend on grade, crop and quantity. To discuss your specification, book a free sourcing review.