NewStats: 3,262,191 , 8,176,417 topics. Date: Sunday, 01 June 2025 at 09:54 AM 4v2t3t

The Nigerian cassava industry faces a bleak future due to what stakeholders described as ‘massive import’ of starch by corporations that formerly purchased locally.

The situation is said to have angered industrial cassava processors who spent billions to set up factories to produce starch and high-quality food-grade flour, forcing some of them to shut down operations, Weekend Trust gathered.

Farmers are now left to rely solely on garri processors, who give reduced rates that are less than the cost of production, since industrial processors no longer purchase cassava from farmers.

In December, a ton of cassava was sold for N120,000 and above, depending on location. However, the current price crash point is at N80, 000 to N90, 000 per ton, with one processor suggesting ‘it will get worse to between N50, 000 and N70, 000.’


Kehinde Lawrence is the programme manager of the Industrial Cassava Stakeholders’ Association of Nigeria (ICSAN). He told Daily Trust during a telephone interview on Wednesday that the processors and the farmers are now in a distressed situation.

“We are convening an emergency meeting as an association to also look into it and probably get some facts and figures in of the volume of what was imported, the volume and how it is affecting the offtake of cassava products locally, mainly food-grade starch and sorbitol. Sorbitol is a sweetener; it’s a major ingredient in toothpaste.

“We also have one of our who is producing that locally now. But we have a lot of producers of food grade starch in many states across the country,” he said.

He said the association was concerned that a lot of people have gone into cassava production, even on a large scale now. But the output of the harvest, which is taken primarily by industrial processors, suffered a setback because these are the people who have the capacity to process.

He said the processors discovered that some of the end-s who were buying such cassava starch and flour locally were no longer buying.

“So, we’re wondering what’s actually happening. And it also goes back to the farmers because if they are not buying the products, the processors will not offtake from the farmers to process,” Kehinde said.

One of the processors in a WhatsApp comment wrote, “We cried to The Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) PVAC and NAFDAC, they seem not to understand the situation.”

“The government licensed 80 pharmaceuticals to import substrates, including corn starch, at zero duty.

“Miraculously, all companies buying cassava starch locally got their warehouses filled up with Corn/Cassava Starch….including the big multinationals.”

With over 40 processors currently processing cassava starch and flour, the association believed they have enough capacity to deliver high-quality food-grade starch and flour for the pharmaceutical companies in the country.

The union is furious that some of them borrowed money from the bank to the farmers and it’s time for the farmers to harvest, but they cannot buy from the farmers to process because nobody is ready to take up their products.

“So, the banks are running after them and the worst the farmer could do is to sell to someone that processes garri or fufu. And if the farmer is selling that way, he may not be able to recover his own investment and so would become discouraged. That means they won’t work with us anymore. So, that’s a major challenge.

“But what we have done is after that meeting we had last Friday, we requested the of NAFDAC and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Nigeria; they need to work with us.

The processors want the government to encourage the manufacturing industry in Nigeria to buy raw materials that are standard and available locally first, before talking of importing from outside.

“Two weeks ago, the president was telling all the ministries to stop buying or procuring any material or equipment that is available locally.

These are some of the things we are also looking at that the government should also help us to flag off.

“As I’m speak to you; there’s no national policy on cassava. That was raised with the Minister of State for Industry and he has commissioned the department within this ministry that is serving that responsibility to work with all the stakeholders and ensure that before the end of this year something happens.

But we need the of the president and the National Assembly to make sure that things materialize this year. So, if we have a national policy, I know it will take care of some of these things we are discussing now.

Malafiya Esson, who owns one hectare of cassava farm in Doma, Nasarawa State, said the price has fallen below what he can sell now because of the amount he spent on the farm.

A pick-up van load of cassava currently sells for between N80,000 and N100,000, as against the N170,000 and N210,000 it sold for about five months ago.

He said he would not sell at N80, 000 as the losses will be high, hoping for better prices in the coming months, but key players said prices may plummet.

But Mr Austine Benedict, who refused to sell his cassava in Awo Adaba in Kogi early this year, hoping for a better price, is also now licking his wounds as the price is down from N170,000 per tricycle load to N130,000.

He said that although prices during the rainy season are lower because cassava has a high-water content, he expects a slight decline.

https://dailytrust.com/cassava-producers-take-steps-as-starch-import-crashes-price/

“Two weeks ago, the president was telling all the ministries to stop buying or procuring any material or equipment that is available locally.

See this one... The President was not talking about foods... He had given you enough opportunity to bring down food prices but una no gree. Government will help you crash the price, make una no worry.

Front page

We are our own problems

something APC should have done since 2015

They keep forminf Jagaban till things are as destroyed as they are now

It is now they are trying to do what is NORMAL

The capacity to process what is being produced in raw form is the issue on one hand and the market shift on another.
During PDP years when there was excess harvest, they embraced bread making with cassava flour. I hope Tinubu doesnt wait 6 more years before embracing what works for all.

You guys may need to count your losses and re-strategize for the long term. Foodstuffs prices are quite high and the government needs to intervene by possibly introducing consistent mechanisms to the farmers.
Likewise cement, these things are produced locally here in Nigeria.

When prices come down, farmers, transporters, oil marketers & others will be crying.

Ok

Ok

H

Sign of working country

Food is cheap

Because we are cursed with dumb leaders, we will continue to suffer. It is suicide to importation against local production. Same thing is happening to maize production. Fertilizer is still very expensive and so are herbicides and pesticides. Rather than addressing these challenges for long term sustainable agricultural development, government is now taking the lazy man's way for temporary gains due to elections.

Even a newborn baby knows that the disastrous level of insecurity in the country especially in the north, is the major cause of high food prices since many farming communities have been displaced. Rather than address this terrible issue head-on, government has resorted to window dressing for temporary gains and more trouble later.

I see ignorant comments where people are blaming the farmers for not using the opportunity wisely. That line of argument is a consequence of zero knowledge of basic economics. The farmers are to a large extent, victims of the situation we find ourselves.

Hoarding is a crime, and most of our farmers lack the capacity to hold onto their produces longer than two to three months cos they simply sell and buy fertilizer and other farm inputs as well as household groceries. The hoarders are the corrupt politicians and biz people with warehouses, and with capacity to store these products for years. Again, rather than targeting these persons, the government is allowing more importation, the lazy-man solution.

The people benefiting from the agricultural value chain locally are large. All these drama will just make them jobless. I understand there is hunger in the land but government should take up the responsibility of tackling insecurity and dealing with their hoarder friends so that food can be cheap. Subsidy for farming inputs are also great. Afterall, the farmers in countries we are importing from are heavily subsidized by their govts. Y not we? Why kill local industry. BUNCH OF MEDIOCRES.

but una no go blame them na. In this corn3, it's often CHEAPer to IMPORT than to Produce locally

Maybe this can bring down the price of FUFU and Garri

The swallow don cost...badly affected by inflation ...make the price come down abeg.

Evil pipu. Government is trying to make food affordable, some evil satan messengers are still working against that

Putindbutt:


See this one... The President was not talking about foods... He had given you enough opportunity to bring down food prices but una no gree. Government will help you crash the price, make una no worry.

The government should also lower the cost of grains.

Why didn't they crash their prices earlier?

Not a setback

No be only step, na staircase. Nigerians are generally super greedy if given chance and monopoly. Dem go rip you die.
These farmers were given money in the billions by government, especially Buhari. So many people collected money even without being farmers, just connection. Grow naija, grow naija, no show. Because of them, Buhari locked borders officially for years. These guys created artificial scarcity and sold at ridiculous inflation profits. Now, government has allowed import, they are taking steps. Wicked devils.

It's same thing in different sectors. See agent to help you for job, ission, visa, etc. They'll collect more than double of the official fees and block road to make sure it's only accessible to them. We have a bunch of religious devils all over.

Good one, these local crooks have caused scarcity of gari leading to high prices, they don't even make good starch.
They should focus on gari and fufu production instead.

Nigeria

Prices are high we complain

Government opens up borders for cheap substitutes to come in

Prices crash and people are still complaining

Besides if the ton of cassava fell by half why is a kg of garri being sold in the market still the same price

Putindbutt:


See this one... The President was not talking about foods... He had given you enough opportunity to bring down food prices but una no gree. Government will help you crash the price, make una no worry.

You dey mind the evil pipu? I don’t know why Nigerians are so evil

Why do Nigerian farmers always prefer to impose high prices on Nigerians?
The other day it was rice farmers that were crying that they were losing money and were shutting down their factories and farms because the price of rice had crashed.
Today, cassava farmers want the prices to remain high up. Why are people like this sef?

Idiotic people...

All they want is for the price to skyrocket. The selfishness of Nigerian farmers really need to be studied

Import ordinarily shouldn't be cheaper at ₦1600/$, and then cassava price is never stable, you can't compare price at off-season to peak period.

I dey observe

hmm

Putindbutt:


See this one... The President was not talking about foods... He had given you enough opportunity to bring down food prices but una no gree. Government will help you crash the price, make una no worry.

how about crashing the cost of farming the cassava .like chemicals, cost of labour, transportation etc ...if those areas are not taken care of, the famers will have to lay down their tools or only farm for household consumption and people like you who can't even farm one cassava stem will go hungry or buy imported commodities at high cost which is exactly what those imports are fighting to achieve...