For Nigeria to play actively in its cassava market, there must be proper definition, and understanding of the needs of the markets and what the consumers are ready to consume, says German International Cooperation (GIZ).
“To address the missing link in the cassava market, there ought to be a proper understanding of who the consumers are, what they are ready to consume and the willingness to pay for the products, in addition to the bye products,” Annie Marie, representative of GIZ Nigeria told BusinessDay on the sidelines of the National Cassava Summit held recently in Abuja.
“We need to inform the consumers what are the qualities of Nigerian products got from cassava. We need communications on markets; thus where is the quantity and quality needs of specifics products, if it is processed products or tubers, between the suppliers and off takers,” she said.
According to her, “Farmers need business skills because cassava production is a business. Business skills that are more than record keeping, entails knowing good agricultural practice and what is needed in terms of quality inputs.”
Meanwhile, global cassava production in 2013 was 276 million metric tons. Nigeria, top cassava producer, accounted for 19 percent of the total, which experts say could have been more if those in cassava value chain address the needs of the market, invest more on the industrial needs of the products like starch, ethanol, HQCF and glucose syrup.
Despite being world’s largest cassava producer, Nigeria is among the top global importers of cassava by-products such as starch, flour and animal feeds.
Unconfirmed sources say the country spends $580 million yearly on importation of cassava byproducts. Cassava has major industrial products like industrial starch, ethanol, flour, glucose syrup, sweeteners amongst others. These products are also raw materials to numerous Industries with limitless domestic and export market potentials.
BusinessDay findings reveal that Nigeria has annual demand of 269 000 tons of starch, and was able to supply only 20 000 tons, whereas others are imported. Also, with regard to ethanol, there is an annual demand of 200 million liters of ethanol and Nigeria is only able to bridge the gap by 9 million liters supply. Also on glucose syrup, there is an annual demand of 90 000 tons with the current supply of 30 000 tons and a supply gap of 60 000 tons yet to be filled.
Nigeria currently produces 54 million metric tons of cassava; on the contrary, less than 200 000 cassava roots are processed into industrial purposes, such as starch, ethanol, high quality cassava flour, and glucose syrup.
Meanwhile, Dara Akala, the programme director, Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta, also spoke with BusinessDay also on the sidelines, said, “key stakeholders in Cassava value chain must work towards addressing these concerns, to lessen import on these products, and create wealth for those along the Cassava value chain.”
“We must play actively in cassava value chain to harvest more foreign exchange for the sector, which is among key area Nigeria spends huge sums on importation,” she added.
Harrison Edeh
