Cassava Processing Business Plan - Garri Production& Farming Business
Garri is traditionally made at home in Africa. It is increasingly becoming common to produce garri at commercial level using mechanised means.
Made from cassava, the tubers are harvested, peeled, removing the covering, and the white pulp is grated in a garri grinding machine. Before the advent of machines, the cassava is hand grated.
The grated produce is then put into a jute sack and the sack tied. Traditionally, this is left to ferment for three to seven days depending on the type of garri been made.This step is very important, as the fermentation process helps to reduce and detoxify the high cyanide content of cassava.
While still inside the sack, sacks are stacked up on each other, and a wooden board placed below and above the sacks. The wooden boards are tied together with the sacks full of the grated cassava in between. Tension is created by tightening the rope and thus allowing water to run out of the grated cassava being processed.
Usually, by day three, the grated cassava would have lost quite some water and become reasonably dried.
This step is also been by-passed with the use of machines that compress and squeeze water out of the grated cassava.
The water running out is very rich in starch. Collected into a basin and let to sediment, pure raw starch is obtained.
This fermented, and dried grated cassava is now sieved to remove large particles and fibres and the smaller grain-like bits are collected for further processing. This is now fried in a dry large pot. All you do here is put a thick big pot on fire, let the pot get dried, then put in some of the grated cassava and stir it until it becomes crisp. It gives off a pleasant cooked aroma. You must stir this continuously to avoid it getting burnt. The finished cooked or baked product is what is called garri.
There are different types of gari, depending on how it is processed, its grain size and the region of Africa where it is produced.
classifies gari into:
- Extra Fine Grain Gari - where more than 80% of the grain passes through a sieve of less than 350 micro meter aperture
- Fine Grain Gari - More than 80 % of the grains pass through a sieve of less than 1000 micro meter aperture
- Coarse Grain gari - Not less than 80% of grains passes through a seive of 1400 micro meter or less than 20 % of weight passes through a seive of 1000 micro meterExtra Coarse Grain Gari - Not less than 20 % of grain is retained on a sieve of 1400 micro meter aperture.
You can choose any of the above texture size to meet the specific need you want to put your garri to. Generally, for making eba, the fine grain or coarse grain gari are usually okay, and the extra coarse grain garri for soaking.
Garri can also be classified based on fermentation length (days and extent) as well as whether palm oil is added to make it yellow or not. Such classifications includes:
- Red Gari
This is the type of gari commonly found in the Mid-Western part of Nigeria. It is also called Bendel garri. It is made exactly the way described above, but for the addition of red palm oil after grating the cassava and the gari is allowed to ferment for two to three days also. Adding palm oil to the gari further helps to reduce the cyanide content and gives it a unique flavour.
- White Gari
Same as Bendel gari, left to ferment for two to three days as well, but red palm oil is not added during processing.
- Ijebu Gari
Ijebu gari is made same way too, but allowed to ferment for up to seven days. No palm oil is added. It is also fried to become much crisped. It characteristically has a very sharp taste and less starchy. Many people from the Western part of Nigeria love this and find it great for “soaking”.
- Ghana Gari
Ghana garri as the name implies is garri made in Ghana. Again the process is basically the same. The harvested and peeled cassava is soaked in water first. This step is skipped when making gari in Nigeria as above. After grating the peeled and soaked cassava, this is then sun dried, before frying it in a pot to cook it crisp.
Ghana gari thus comes out quite starchy, very crisp, and lasts very long in storage. No palm oil is added. It is very good in making eba.
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