Cassava chips/pellets are unfermented white dried products of cassava with an average diameter of 3mm – 5mm often used as a carbohydrate base in the animal feed industry particularly in Europe or milled into flour for other uses such as in the production of ethanol, cakes, dough-nut, and biscuits.
As against the traditional, inefficient method associated with cassava processing into dried whole roots which are usually characterized with undesirable colour, irregular shapes and often contaminations with moulds. Research development by the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) has led to successful development of a process technology for converting freshly harvested cassava into dried cassava chips having at least 18 months shelf life, containing cyanogenic glucosides within the permitted safe limits suitable for export and other uses
PRODUCTION PROCESS
The production process comprises of simple operations involving simple equipment.
The essential operations are as follows.
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Sorting and Weighing
The harvested cassava roots are sorted to select wholesome roots, as well as, to remove immature roots and foreign materials before weighing.
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Washing and Peeling
The cassava roots are washed in potable water to remove adhering sand. They are then manually peeled with knives and washed again to further remove sand and other dirt.
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Chipping
The washed, peeled cassava roots are fed into a cassava chipping machine fabricated in the Institute to obtain chips of regular sizes and shapes. Alternatively the tubers can be manually cut into round chips of uniform sizes.
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Drying
The wet chips are spread in stainless steel trays in a cabinet dryer at a predetermined temperature and dried to a low moisture level.
To produce good quality chips the roots must be sliced and dried as quickly as possible after harvest. The chips should be turned periodically in the drying period, usually two or three sunny days. The chips are considered dry when they are easily broken but too hard to be crumbled by hand. The thickness of the slices also has an effect on the quality of the chips. Thick slices may appear dry on the surface when their internal moisture content is still high.
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Cooling
The dried chips are allowed to cool naturally to room temperature prior to packaging.
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Packaging
The cooled, dried chips are vacuum packaged in high-density polyethylene bags or in polypropylene bags lined with high-density polyethylene bags.
Cassava Chips Machinery and equipment
The equipment required is:
- Chipping machine
- Rotary dryer
- Packaging machine (stitching and sealing)
- Rapid moisture analyzer
- Automated cyanide analyzer.
Source: Federal Institute Of industrial research Oshodi (FIIRO)
Investment potential of Cassava chips
The demand for cassava chips and pellets is worldwide. The first large scale commercial user of cassava chips as livestock farmers of the United Kingdom; the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Netherlands, and France. The products are also widely demanded in Taiwan, Asia, and the USA.
The demand locally has been on an increase and also very encouraging. The demand for cassava chips and pellets is well over 10 million metric tonnes annually. The supply of the product on the other hand is inadequate and falls short of the above demand figure.
This is because there are very few companies producing these products in Nigeria and worldwide presence. Precisely, the supply of cassava chips and pellets is just 30 percent of the total demand. By the end of 2009, a shortfall in the supply of 10.5 million tonnes existed and this increased to 12.6 million as of mid-2010.
The figure has doubled in the year 2012 and bound to increase further as demand increases every day all over the world.
The demand for cassava chips/pellets is intensified in Nigeria as a result of the Government directive to Flour Millers of increasing the application of cassava flour from 10 percent to 20 percent, and cassava chips/pellets is the main raw materials for producing of cassava flour. These facts show that there is a huge investment opportunity that is yet to be fully maximized.
How Much is needed To Start Cassava Production In Nigeria
The cost and installation of the machinery required for cassava chips production can be estimated to be about eight million five hundred and fifty thousand Naira (N8, 550, 000). This doesn’t entail the cost of acquiring the site of which the plant would be constructed, and also the cost of generators, stitching machines, industrial Scale, Borehole or portable water, and other running costs. This implies that roughly about fifteen million Naira would be required in starting the business in a standard approach
Marketing
Cassava chips is locally demanded in large quantity but highly demanded in the international market. You can process and export them to other countries by yourself or sell to buyers of the produce in Nigeria who export the chips to other countries. Check internet you will see a list of buyers or dealers of cassava chips.
The figures presented above are credited to Federal Institute Of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO)
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REFERENCE
[1] Courtsey of Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi, FIIRO, the material on Mechanized cassava Chips production.
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