Nigeria Is The Biggest Cassava Producer In The World. Why Isn’t It Cashing In On The Global Market?

Nigeria grows 63 million metric tons of cassava (also known as yuca or manioc) every year, but most of the country's supply is eaten locally as fufu or garri. Experts say Nigeria could be missing out on billions in exports of lucrative cassava products like bubble tea pearls, starch, or ethanol. Challenges along the country's entire supply chain have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in cassava spoilage. But one entrepreneur, Yemisi Iranloye, thinks she has the solution. She's introduced higher-yielding seed varieties and moved processing plants closer to farms. Now, her farmers earn four times more for their product, and her cassava starch and sorbitol have landed her clients like Nestle and Unilever. Could Yemisi's model be the way for Nigeria to feed itself and cash in on exports?

0:00 Intro
1:48 History of cassava
2:58 Growing issues
5:42: How garri and fufu are made
6:54 Transportation issues
7:36 How cassava is processed
10:06 Global demand is so high for cassava

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Nigeria Is The World's Biggest Cassava Producer. So Why Doesn't It Make Money Off Exports?

[allseeingeye]

Her paying the farmers directly instead of through middlemen was very smart. Its important these farmers actually get the profits from their labor instead of having it swallowed up and letting their business stagnate.

[financeandstrategyacademy]

As a Nigerian 🇳🇬 I can tell you Garri is a lifesaver

[mcmaine]

As a cameroonian🇨🇲 i can tell you Garri should be added in the first Aid box

[hmaina]

Kudos to her for changing the lives of those farmers for the better. We need more people like her.

[andrec]

So many wealthy Nigerians at home and abroad must invest in these factories. Come on... Great for her and her team.

[nelsonwelser]

In Uganda, we have a valiant of cassava that has no poison in it.
We eat it raw and it's sweet, we cook it directly without fermentation,
It's very high in starch and once cooked its white and can last forever when dried.
We cut it and dry it directly from the ground.

[WastedSunRise]

We use cassava in cooking for my daughter who can't have gluten, wheat, rice or oats. It's been a life saver for us.

[StefandeJong]

Was very excited to hear launched her company to preserve Cassava - until Nestlé was mentioned and and almost vomited.

[akinyemihiro]

As a agriculture graduate i know IITA has added a very good impact in both supply chain and processing especially in ogun, ondo and oyo state. The only issue why cassava has not met the international market is because of food safety regulations

[chelseaopoku]

As a Ghanaian, cassava is also a staple food in Ghana as well. We also make fufu and gari with cassava as well, although we often add things like plantains to it as well.

[azalor]

As a Nigerian, this a lot of new information to take in.
Thank you for this documentary 🫡

[libyatube]

Nigeria will become great country one day, I feel it in my bones when I sow this lady

[felypeforte]

In Northeastern Brazil is has been a staple for milenia. Here we have several processing houses, which are not industrial, but community based. You can rent the houses by giving a small part of the products to the owner. It is a good exchange for both parts. Here we make two products, the same garri flour here we call cassava flour, but we don’t soak it in water, we use it as farofa, qhich looks like those bread crumbs that Americans use, but instead we use the cassava flour. Another product is Tapioca flour made from the starches, which we use to make tapioca crepes (that is what we call tapioca). It is an amazing and versatile product.

[gemelwalters]

Happy to see these women thinking ahead and adapting, I hope their success continues. It seems a lot of the infrastructure in the region is dependent on government assistance but this is so slow

[sulaak]

Nigeria's greatest problem is inefficient infrastructure, such as skilled managers, poor electricity, and road and rail infrastructures. Nigeria has failed to benefit from its oil, gas, agriculture and cheap labour due to the centralised government and poor infrastructure. Democracy has been a disaster that produced rent-seeking politicians interested in quick wins rather than long-term economic solutions.

[outtersteller]

Most of us don’t even know that cassava has replaced the flour in so many product like corn flakes other cereal products.
It’s an amazing crop.

[nerdishshonrenee]

So awesome, she made a huge difference, bless her journey with only good things!

[Ekow_TheStoryTeller]

Cassava has saved many lives in Africa. It is our staple and we must benefit from it’s economic potential. Good work Yemisi

[Fourtune]

Nice news to hear about their country developing. The news always picks the worst stories.

[augustoortiz]

Just a correction: not all cassava are poisonous or contain cyanide. The strands that do contain cyanide can be translated to "angry cassava" in portuguese and are usually not usually accessible to regular customers, only to industrial customers.