Niger Seeds

Sortex-cleaned bird-feed & crushing grade

CBIL supplies niger seed (Guizotia abyssinica, also traded as nyjer or ramtil) from Indian and Ethiopian origins, Sortex-cleaned and gravity-separated to 98–99% purity with oil content typically 38–42%. Two distinct demand streams pull on this seed and they specify differently. The bird-feed trade — by far the larger buyer, and the reason niger moves at all in Europe and North America — cares about purity, admixture and, above all, weed-seed content, because niger imported for feed is normally required to be heat-sterilised to prevent viable weed seeds germinating on arrival, and a lot that fails the germination requirement is a phytosanitary problem, not a quality complaint. Crushers, mostly in India and Ethiopia, buy on oil content and FFA and are indifferent to sterilisation.

A buyer picks niger over other small seed where the market wants it specifically — finch and wild-bird feed has no real substitute for it — rather than as an interchangeable oil seed, which is why it prices above mustard and flax despite similar oil content. The seed is small, light and slow to clean, so Sortex class is the practical quality marker and a poorly cleaned lot shows up immediately as dust and screenings at the feed line. Every lot ships against SGS or Intertek certification of purity, admixture, weed-seed content, moisture at ≤ 8%, oil content and FFA, with heat-sterilisation and phytosanitary documentation where the destination requires it, in 25kg and 50kg PP or jute bags, container-load, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.