Sesame and pulses on the TMX exchange

Who sets the rules

TMX issued its Commodity Trading Procedure, second edition, on 29 April 2025 for the 2025/26 season. It covers chickpeas, pigeon peas, soybeans and sesame. It was prepared with COPRA, WRRB, the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission and regional and district authorities ⁸. It sets different auction timing, payment terms and charges from the earlier trade guideline, edition 1 of 2024, which WRRB still lists on its website ^2,3.

The 2025 procedure tells buyers to follow the Warehouse Receipts Act, Cap. 339, the Commodity Exchange Act of 2015, the Cooperative Societies Act of 2013 and the Cereal and Other Produce Act of 2009 ⁸. COPRA lists licensing of people who market and process crops among its functions and runs an online licence and permit portal ⁷.

From farm to auction

• Farmers deliver graded produce to an AMCOS warehouse. The AMCOS checks quality, weighs on a digital scale verified by the Weights and Measures Agency and packs new 50 kg bags, under the 2024 guideline ².
• Each farmer gets a receipt. The AMCOS moves the crop to a WRRB-licensed auction warehouse with a produce delivery note and farmer list ².
• Warehouse operators issue standard documents and report daily to the WRRB database ².
• Buyers deposit a security bond in the TMX settlement account and register on the TMX Online Trading System. The bond is TZS 30,000,000 for 30 to 50 tonnes and TZS 100,000,000 for 51 tonnes and above ⁸.
• Each lot is one AMCOS's deposit and sells in 120 seconds. Each higher bid resets the countdown to 60 seconds ⁸. The 2024 guideline had a one-minute lot and a 40-second reset ².
• Unions give consent online. The winner is confirmed once sellers accept the price within 30 minutes of the session closing ⁸.
• The winning buyer pays within 72 working hours of the invoice. A 5 percent penalty on the unpaid amount applies for up to 24 hours after that. A buyer who still has not paid is declared a defaulter, the crop is auctioned again and the bond compensates sellers ⁸.
• The 2024 guideline encourages payment to farmers by bank account or mobile money and sets no deadline for paying them ². The 2025 procedure sets no farmer payment deadline either ⁸.

Charges in the 2025 procedure

The buyer pays these charges per kg of sesame on top of the winning price, plus 3 percent cess ⁸. Pigeon peas, chickpeas and soybeans carry the same items with cooperative administration at TSh 60, for a total of TSh 202 per kg plus 3 percent cess ⁸. The 2024 guideline had listed a total of TSh 208 per kg, cess included, for all four crops ².

Under the 2024 guideline, buyers get 7 free storage days from the invoice date, then pay TSh 10 per kg per day for the next 7 days ². The 2025 procedure does not restate these storage terms ⁸.

Quality and penalties

The 2024 guideline sets grades by Tanzania Bureau of Standards norms. The sesame standard is TZS 741:2018 and the pigeon pea standard TZS 1084:2014 ². Maximum moisture is 7.5 percent for sesame and 8.5 percent for dengu, pigeon peas and soya ². The 2025 procedure does not restate moisture limits ⁸.

Under the 2024 guideline, a buyer who has not started collecting by day 14 is barred from later auctions. By day 21 the produce is taken over under COPRA with the district government and sold at a later auction ². The warehouse operator pays for missing bags at the auction price plus a 20 percent penalty ².

Volumes and prices reported

TMX told reporters that over 200,000 tonnes of sesame had been traded on the exchange, with about 74,000 tonnes from Lindi, as reported by The Guardian on 8 August 2025 ⁴.

On 15 June 2026 Valentine Oforo of The Guardian reported TMX figures for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons. Sesame sold so far in 2026/27 was 8,665.6 tonnes worth TZS 24.93 billion, at TSh 2,310 to TSh 2,740 per kg. Pigeon peas reached 270,740 tonnes in 2025/26 at TSh 570 to TSh 1,350 per kg. The paper gave lentils at 132,424 tonnes, at TSh 760 to TSh 1,430 per kg, with no season stated ⁵. TMX said futures trading had not yet started ⁵.

Songwe farmers sold 1,923 tonnes of sesame worth more than TSh 3 billion at the first 2026/27 auction on 8 May 2026, as reported by The Citizen ⁶.

Totals differ by date

A TMX news post with no exact date says about 1,450,202 tonnes of crops and minerals worth about TZS 4.12 trillion were sold from 2019 to 2025 ¹. The Guardian reported on 15 June 2026 that TMX had earned over TZS 5.87 trillion from more than 2.036 million tonnes of farm commodities ⁵. The two figures cover different periods ^1,5.