Description

Cassava is the most important root crop in Nigeria. Apart from being a staple crop in both rural and urban household’s cassava is a major source of income to cassava farmers and processors in the rural areas.
Cassava alone contributes about 45% of agricultural GDP in Nigeria for food or domestic purposes but its industrial processing and utilization has been very limited.

Tapioca is the starch extracted from the cassava root. Tapioca is one of the purest forms of starch food and it has a neutral flavor and strong gelling power, making it highly useable as a thickening agent in both sweet and savory foods. Because tapioca is the extracted starch from the cassava root, it is nearly 100 percent carbohydrates and it is considered fat, gluten and protein free.

Traditional uses for tapioca include tapioca pudding, bubble or boba tea, and other candies and desserts. With the industrialized food revolution, tapioca has seen many new uses. Tapioca is often added to soups, sauces, and gravies to create body and thickness because it has more thickening power and is less expensive than flour and other thickeners. Tapioca can be added to ground meat products, like burger patties or chicken nuggets, as a binder and ingredient stabilizer.

Tapioca is also often added to doughs, especially gluten-free products, to improve the texture and moisture content.
This report seeks to examine the financial viability or otherwise of establishing tapioca production in Nigeria using cassava tubers as basic raw material.

The production capacity of the proposed business is three (3) tons per day for of eight (8) hours each working at 80% of the installed capacity in the first and second year of operations respectively. An Input output ratio of 1: 0.12 was assumed from raw materials to finished products and the finished products would be packaging in one (1) kg printed sachets after which it would put in a carton.