Description

Cassava is one of the most important root crops in Nigeria. Apart from being a staple crop in both rural and urban house-holds cassava is a major source of income to cassava farmers and processors in the rural areas.

Nigeria is currently the world leading producer of cassava, producing about forty million (40,000,000) MT. per annum and cassava alone contributes about five percent (5%) of agricultural GDP in Nigeria for food or domestic purposes but its industrial processing and utilization has been very limited.

Since the return to civil rule in 1999, Nigeria has witnessed steady but minimal growth of the middle class. These growthcontinues to drive the increasing social and health awareness of the need for hygienically well prepared foods required for good quality living standard of people.

Garri, a product gotten from the processing of cassava tubers is a very important staple food item in Nigeria. It is one of the food items that defy socio-economic class, religious and ethnic boundaries, It is doubtful if it is not eaten daily in one of every two homes in the country.

Garri is a creamy-white, granular flour with a slightly fermented flavour and a slightly sour taste made from fermented, gelatinized fresh cassava tubers. Garri is widely known in Nigeria and other West African countries.

It is a popular West African food. It is most widely eaten as Eba. Eba is made by sprinkling garri into a bowl or pot of boiling water and stirred until dough of garri is formed. You could add more water to the dough and stir to your desired texture. The finished product is called eba.

The annual national demand for garri is estimated at one million (1,000,000) tons while the national supply estimate is about two hundred and fifty thousand (250,000) tons.

This coupled with the geometrically exploding population and continued rural-urban drift continues to fuel the demand for food stuffs especially Garri, a staple food in the country.

This report is to examine the financial viability or otherwise of establishing a Garri production plant in Nigeria with cassava tubers as the raw materials.

The production capacity of the proposed business is four (4) tons per day for three (3) shifts of eight (8) hours each working at eighty percent (80%) of the installed capacity in the first, second, third, fourth and fifth year of operations respectively.

An input output ratio of four to one (4:1) was assumed from raw materials to finished products and the finished products would be packaging in twenty-five (25) kg printed PP woven sack with inner protectively polyethylene material.