He was a farmer who came to the city looking for international buyers for his crops. The plan was to come to Addis Abeba and sort out an export license and hopefully seal deals with interested buyers. As the head of his cooperative union, Desalegn Legese would also be representing 32,000 other farmers from his hometown, each with small plots of their own. The 40-year-old farmer has been growing sesame since his return home after graduating from Meqelle University in 2004.

Desalegn worked hard to make a living on his plot in Qafta Humera Wereda in West Tigray Zone and eventually was elected general manager of the Setit Humera Cooperative Union, a constellation of 20 primary farmers unions in Setit Kebele within the Wereda. He says his work ethic and modern education played a big role in that.

Qafta Humera is among the major areas of sesame production well known for its high-quality aromatic white Humera sesame. The area produces 100,000ql to 150,000ql of sesame a year with Setit, where Desalegn resides, generating up to 40,000ql of the lot. The farmers in Setit also grow sorghum, but the white Humera sesame is especially suitable for baking and has high demand in the market. It was with a plan to start exporting their sesame and get an even better value for it that Desalegn came to Addis Abeba.

“It was a Saturday when I left," he said. "I left thinking that I would be back home soon. I didn't prepare for anything."

He arrived in Addis Abeba on a Saturday, and things started well. Talks with potential sesame buyers were bearing fruit, and he was making headway at getting the necessary grants for export at various public institutions. In fact, Desalegn had already talked to and signed contracts with potential buyers when all hell broke loose.

At midnight on Tuesday, November 4, Desalegn and the rest of the country woke up to the news of armed conflict that had broken out between the federal government and the Tigray regional administration, one of the 10 regions in the country and where Desalegn was born and raised. Communications were promptly shut off following what the government dubbed a law enforcement operation against the region's leaders. Borders were militarised.

“I don’t know what is going on there,” he said.

He hasn't been able to communicate with anyone for over two weeks. It is harvest season back home, and he is concerned about the fate of his crops and many others like him.

“Sesame isn't like other crops. It's susceptible and easily damaged,” explained Desalegn.

He spoke of his fear of fire damage to the crops as well, especially since the area around the farms are covered with dry grass.

“If we don't sell our crops on time, we lose it to pests when we don't have sufficient chemicals," he said.

The option of storage, if one, is also not ideal for sesame crops. The seed loses moisture and, consequently, weight if it is stored in warehouses for long periods of time. In the past, farmers would store sesame in the hope of selling it for a higher price when the market supply ran low and demand shot up.

Now, however, there is no significant price variation across seasons and storing sesame in warehouses is not beneficial to the farmers, according to Desalegn.

“If you store a quintal of sesame for two months," he said, "it will lose five to 10 kilograms. It has to be sold immediately."

At the time of his departure for the capital, the farmers in Humera had already started collecting sesame to later supply to buyers.

Setit Cooperative Union has come a long way since its establishment in 2004. It had endured difficult circumstances and was starting to recuperate when the conflict began, according to Desalegn. The Union began small and then started offering market facilitation services to members by availing their produce to buyers through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). This enabled the farmers to export the sesame that they grew on their land.

The Union would either sell the sesame directly or for commission prices. At times, it would buy the product from its primary unions and present them for export itself or aid the farmers as a middleman. When acting as a middleman, Setit charges commission from the income in return.

As the Cooperative Union paid 50 Br or more above the market price a quintal, the primary unions who supply sesame preferred to sell or supply their products to Setit, according to Desalegn.

However, since 2014, Setit has been operating with heavy losses on its sesame export operations. The price of sesame in the domestic market was constantly increasing, while the product was being sold at lower prices in the international market. Exporters were buying the sesame for 5,000 Br a quintal and selling it for 4,000 Br in the international market.

Many sesame traders had been scrambling for the limited supply by offering higher prices, thereby driving up the local market price.

Although Setit earned 850,000 dollars from the export of sesame products in 2014, it was forced to cease all sesame export operations that year due to market price inflation issues.

Despite this, many in the sector have chosen to remain in the sesame export business. In fact, merchants were exporting sesame at a loss due to the limited availability of hard foreign currency in the country.

“Even though they operate with losses, it has still been essential [to export] for many traders, because they import commodities using the foreign currency generated from sesame exports,” said Desalegn.

In October 2019, the Ministry of Trade & Industry issued the Export Contract Registration & Performance Directive to avoid under-invoicing of agricultural goods in the international market by setting price caps. This enabled traders and exporters to get sesame products at lower prices than they had been previously. A quintal of sesame that was being sold for between 5,000 Br to 6,000 Br before the law was issued has since been lowered to 3,500 Br on average this year.