When a consumer visits the market to purchase garri for consumption and stumbles on different ‘classy’ packaging of the product other than the usual containers, there is bound to be some confusion. This confusion for the potential buyer could even be more if the seller displays garri produced by, for instance, Flour Mills of Nigeria or Golden Penny.
But that was in the past. Today, the market is changing as manufacturers are beginning to bet big on consumer products like garri, which before now was seen as an exclusive preserve of small-scale local (often rural) processors.
Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, but the well-known application of the product remains processing into garri, and at other times fufu, both staple foods.
Yet, there are other industrial uses of cassava which, if explored, can provide multi-billion dollar returns, create jobs, and stimulate industrial growth.
Major industrial products from cassava include ethanol, industrial starch, cassava flour, glucose syrup, sweetener, etc. These products are also raw materials to numerous industrial items with limitless domestic and export market potentials.
If adequately harnessed, cassava can trigger an industrial revolution in Nigeria, empowering even rural dwellers who substantially farm the crop, according to the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA). It will also precipitate the establishment of various cassava-based industries, the association said.
In a document sent to BusinessDay in 2016, NCGA highlighted how Nigeria can generate as much as N10 trillion yearly from cassava, including processing into ethanol.
The cassava growers’ body identified SKG-Pharma Ltd, PZ Industries plc, Emzor Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, Unilever, Daily Needs Industries Ltd, Mopson Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Drugfield Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and New Heathway Co. Ltd as some of the potential off-takers for ethanol in Nigeria, 97 percent of which is imported owing to lack of adequate local supply.
Other potential off-takers identified by NCGA include Neimeth International Pharma plc, Therapeutic Laboratories Ltd, Vitabiotics Nig. Ltd, Guinness Nig. plc, Nestle Nig. plc, Nigerian Breweries plc, Pharma-Deko Nig. plc, UAC Nig. plc, among many others.
Economic dynamics, notably infrastructural deficit, have, however, continued to be blamed for the lack of processing of cassava into different forms.
“All processors in Nigeria are still struggling to produce 2 percent of starch the country needs,” said Nike Tinubu, president, Industrial Cassava Stakeholders Association of Nigeria, in a phone interview.
This is in spite of the abundance of cassava in Nigeria, where prices are considered favourable and, as a result, more people go into cultivation of the crop. This often results in a glut, which translates into a crash in prices and huge losses for farmers.
Many cassava processors would rather stay with garri, largely ignoring the numerous industrial uses for the crop as, according to Tinubu, “the equipment to make garri is not capital-intensive”.
Tinubu said when banks are approached to finance establishment of factories that will process by-products such as starch, it is difficult getting a nod from them.
She said companies that should utilise more cassava (and its by-products) appear reluctant to do so, making the policy for inclusion of local raw materials far less effective than it should be.
She explained that most of the multinational companies operating in Nigeria retail their products locally, which means they get naira. Since they have to repatriate their funds somehow, they prefer to import raw materials using the cash they made from Nigeria, rather than follow the local content policy to buy locally.
“As long as local inclusion policy is not implemented, we will continue to have reluctance in multinationals using local materials,” Tinubu said.
Commercialisation of agriculture in Nigeria remains predominantly driven by ‘commodity trading’ and less by processed products through value addition. However, for a company like Flour Mills of Nigeria, converting cassava into either flour or garri is its model of choice, especially since the company is into food production.
Samuel Iboroma, corporate communications manager, FMN, said that under the starches value chain, the company was primarily focused on the production of High-Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) until two years ago when Golden Penny garri was first produced as a response to its local content development and promotion strategy.
CALEB OJEWALE
