CASSAVA PROCESSING

CASSSAVA CHIPS

Cassava chips are unfermented white dried products of cassava with an average diameter of 3mm – 5mm often used as a carbohydrate base in the animal feed industry particularly in Europe, or milled into flour for other uses such as in the production of ethanol, cakes, dough-nut and biscuits.

Traditionally, cassava is processed into dried whole roots with undesirable colour, irregular shapes and often contaminated with moulds.  The Institute has successfully developed a process technology for converting freshly harvested cassava into dried cassava chips having at least 18 months shelf life, containing cyanogenic glucosides within the permitted safe limits suitable for export and other uses.

 

Production Process

The production process comprises of simple operations involving simple equipment that can be fabricated in the Institute.  The process flow chart is as shown in Figure 1.

The essential operations are as follows.

 

Sorting and Weighing

The harvested cassava roots are sorted to select wholesome roots, as well as, to remove immature roots and foreign materials before weighing.

 

Washing and Peeling

The cassava roots are washed in potable water to remove adhering sand.  They are then manually peeled with knives and washed again to further remove sand and other dirt.

 

Chipping

The washed, peeled cassava roots are fed into a cassava chipping machine fabricated in the Institute to obtain chips of regular sizes and shapes. Alternatively the tubers can be manually cut into round chips of uniform sizes.

 

Drying

The wet chips are spread in stainless steel trays in a cabinet dryer at predetermined temperature and dried to a low moisture level.

 

Cooling

The dried chips are allowed to cool naturally to room temperature prior to packaging.

 

 

Packaging

The cooled, dried chips are vacuum packaged in high density polyethylene bags or in polypropylene bags lined with high density polyethylene bags.

 

 

 

CASSAVA PROCESSING FLOW CHAT

Cassava roots

Sorting and weighing

Washing and peeling

Chipping

Drying

Cooling

Packaging
 

Labour Requirement

Five workers are required for the factory operations.  Three as operators, one as supervisor, and one as a laboratory analyst.  Casual labourers shall be needed for peeling the roots.

 

Machinery and Equipment

The equipment required are:

• Chipping machine

• Rotary dryer

• Packaging machine (stitching and sealing)

• Rapid moisture analyzer

• Automated cyanide analyzer.

Space Requirement

A space of 20m X 20m will be adequate for the project.

 

Proposed Production Programme

Number of hours/day                                        8 hours

Number of days/week                                      5 days

Number of days/year                                        250 days

Number of batches/day                                    1 batch

Volume of production                                       1 tonne/8hrs/day.

 

Estimated Capital Requirement (Naira)

The total equipment cost                                               1,300,000

Estimated fixed capital                                                  4,850,000

Estimated working capital                                             2,310,000

Total capital requirement                                               8,460,000

 

 

Profitability (Naira)

Total sales revenue from 250 tonnes at 80, 000 / tonne- 20,000,000

Total Production cost                        3,815,000

Gross profit                                      16,185,000

Tax at 30%                                      4,855,000

Net profit                                         11, 329,500

 

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