Nigeria is the world’s largest cassava producer, accounting for about a fifth of global production worth 62 million metric tonnes annually. Yet the country has failed to capture significant value from the crop’s $127.56 billion derivatives market, leaving much of the industrial opportunity to Asian processors.
While most Nigerian cassava ends up as garri, fufu and other household staples, companies in Thailand and Vietnam process the crop into starch, flour, chips and ethanol for domestic industries and export markets.
The result is a widening gap between production and value creation: Nigeria has the farms, but Asia has the factories.
Demand for cassava derivatives is growing as food manufacturers seek gluten-free ingredients and fuel producers increase their use of bioethanol.
Industry research values the global cassava market size at $127.56 billion in 2025, projected to grow from $133.93 billion in 2026 to USD 202.90 billion by 2034.
Despite its large agricultural base, Nigeria continues to import processed cassava products while Asian exporters capture a growing share of the industrial market.
Data from United Nations Comtrade show that Nigeria exported about 10,505 metric tonnes of cassava-based products in 2025, less than two percent of its production that year. It earned just $1.4 million from exports of starch and flour.
Thailand, which produces about half as much cassava as Nigeria, exported 12 million metric tonnes of cassava-based derivatives in the same year, equivalent to about 40 percent of its production.
The figures illustrate why high agricultural output alone does not guarantee export competitiveness. Without efficient processing, reliable infrastructure and competitive production costs, Nigeria risks remaining a supplier of raw materials while other countries capture the higher-value markets.
From subsistence crop to industrial driver
The problem begins at the farm, according to Segun Adewunmi, former president of the Cassava Growers Association of Nigeria, who spoke from his farm in Oyo State.
‘Last year, the cost of transporting the cassava out of the farms was more expensive than the value of the tubers,’ he said.
‘If farmers are not cultivating optimally and profitably, processors will also not be competitive. This is the reason the Asians are pocketing the derivatives industry.’
The challenge extends beyond transportation to what cassava becomes after it leaves the farm.
Processed cassava can supply industrial starch for food and paper manufacturing, high-quality cassava flour for baking, chips and pellets for animal feed, glucose syrup and sweeteners for pharmaceuticals, and bioethanol for fuel blending.
These products serve established industrial markets, but Nigeria lacks sufficient processing capacity to convert its large harvest into competitive volumes.
Processors need a steady supply of fresh, high-starch roots delivered quickly and at predictable prices. Cassava begins to deteriorate within 48 hours of harvest, according to experts. Without processing facilities close to farms and reliable transport infrastructure, much of its industrial value can be lost before the crop reaches a factory.
‘ Cassava industrialisation is critical to driving inclusive economic growth in Nigeria,’ said Olayinka David-West, professor and dean of Lagos Business School.
‘But it cannot happen in isolation. It requires deliberate collaboration, de-risked and patient capital, and policies that connect smallholder productivity to large-scale processing and market offtake,’ she said.
For Nigeria, therefore, industrialising cassava does not necessarily mean expanding cultivation. It means processing more of what farmers already produce into products that domestic and international buyers need.
Starch, flour and ethanol: where the money is
Starch and high-quality cassava flour offer some of the most immediate opportunities for Nigeria’s downstream cassava industry because they serve established markets in food, beverages, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.
Food and beverage companies use cassava derivatives in products such as biscuits, bread, confectionery and other processed foods. Pharmaceutical manufacturers use starch as a binder and filler, while non-food industries rely on it for paper, textiles, adhesives and other industrial applications.
Yet Nigerian manufacturers continue to depend on imported processed products despite the country’s large domestic cassava supply.
‘Nigeria mostly operates in the upstream cassava sector rather than the downstream, which limits the advantages the country can get,’ said AfricaFarmer Mogaji, an agricultural expert.
Upstream production involves cultivating and selling raw cassava tubers, while downstream processing captures additional value through products such as starch, flour, ethanol and chips.
For Nigerian processors, the challenge is identifying which derivatives can be produced competitively, which markets offer the strongest demand and what operating conditions are needed to make production profitable.
Ethanol offers another significant opportunity. Nigeria still imports about 90 percent of the ethanol it consumes, Adewunmi said, despite the availability of cassava as a feedstock.
Ethanol demand in Africa’s most populous country reached 400 million litres in 2024, according to research by the Nigeria Cassava Investment Accelerator, an initiative of Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University.
The product has applications in fuel blending, pharmaceuticals, sanitisers and industrial solvents, making it an important potential market for locally processed cassava.
However, unlike smaller starch and flour operations, ethanol production requires continuous feedstock supply, reliable and affordable energy, and large-scale distillation facilities.
Developing competitive starch and flour production could therefore help establish the supply chains and processing capabilities needed to expand into more capital-intensive derivatives such as ethanol.
Why Nigerian processors cannot compete
The economics of production remain a major obstacle to industrial cassava processing in Nigeria.
Fresh cassava tubers produced locally can cost more than imported processed cassava chips, Mogaji said, reflecting low farm yields, labour-intensive cultivation and limited mechanisation.
‘The price of fresh cassava tuber from the farm is higher than the price of imported processed cassava chips,’ he said.
‘Our cassava yield is still low even if we are the largest producers. There is no equipment for planting and harvesting,’ Mogaji added.
Without mechanised planting and harvesting, farmers struggle to reduce production costs and increase yields. This makes locally sourced cassava more expensive for processors, undermining their ability to compete with Thai and Vietnamese products, even in the domestic market.
Dokun Thompson, a processor and founder of Eti-Oni Development Group, said the country’s challenge was not a shortage of raw materials but the high cost of operating processing facilities.
‘Nigeria does not lack cassava. It lacks cheap power, working logistics, affordable finance and consistent quality,’ he said.
‘Fix those four, and processors can compete,’ he added.
Starch and high-quality cassava flour could provide an entry point into industrial processing because they have established local buyers in the food, bakery and pharmaceutical industries. They also offer opportunities for processing facilities located close to farming communities.
However, the economics of these businesses depend on access to affordable raw materials, reliable electricity, efficient drying facilities and sufficient working capital.
Without these conditions, local processors will continue to struggle against imported products, even when the raw material is readily available within the country.
What Asian producers are doing differently
Asia’s advantage is not simply the volume of cassava it produces, but how effectively it converts the crop into industrial products.
Thai and Vietnamese processors have developed supply chains that move fresh cassava from farms to processing plants, where it is converted into starch, chips, flour and other derivatives for domestic consumption and export.
Their competitiveness rests on three major advantages: mechanisation, processing clusters and export discipline.
First, mechanisation has helped reduce production costs and improve the reliability of feedstock supply. Mechanised planting and harvesting allow farmers to cultivate larger areas and deliver more predictable volumes to processors.
Second, processing facilities are located close to farming communities, supported by roads and logistics networks that enable the movement of a perishable crop before its quality deteriorates.
Third, processors produce to established export specifications, including starch content, moisture levels and product purity. This consistency allows them to meet the requirements of industrial buyers and secure longer-term supply relationships, particularly in markets such as China.
Adewunmi said Asian farmers were also using micronutrients and improved cultivation practices to increase yields and starch content.
‘The Asians are using micronutrients to upscale cassava yields to about 100 metric tonnes per hectare, with starch content of cassava up-scaled to 40 percent to get much value from the crop,’ he said.
‘Nigeria is still producing an average of 20 metric tonnes per hectare, with starch content of about 22 percent,’ he added.
The difference in productivity and starch concentration has direct implications for processors. Higher yields provide more raw material per hectare, while greater starch content improves the industrial value of each tonne processed.
Nigeria’s larger production base therefore offers little competitive advantage if farmers cannot supply processors with cassava at the right price, volume and quality.
The country has the farms, the crop and an established domestic market. What it lacks is the industrial capacity to convert its production advantage into export earnings, manufacturing inputs and jobs.
Until these constraints are addressed, the world’s largest cassava producer risks continuing to supply the raw material while Asian processors capture the higher-value products and export earnings.