Nigeria may lead the world in cassava production, but stakeholders warn that the country’s growing output still falls short of industrial needs, largely because most of it ends up on the dining table, not in the factory.
Between 2019 and 2023, Nigeria’s cassava production climbed from 56.96 million tons to 62.69 million tons, a 10 percent increase that keeps the country ahead of Brazil, Thailand, and Indonesia. But while the figures are impressive, they mask a critical issue: over 80 percent of the harvest is consumed as food, especially in the form of garri and fufu.
This leaves less than 5 percent of cassava available for industrial applications such as ethanol, starch, and high-quality cassava flour products with high potential to drive economic growth through agro-industrial value chains.
“At the current pace, processors simply can’t compete with the person turning cassava into garri at the back of their farm,” said Sadiq Usman, Managing Director of Flour Mills Nigeria Agro, during the 2025 Agriconnect Summit.
Usman noted that while the Southwest produces more cassava, manufacturers often prefer the Middle Belt due to lower local consumption.
“They don’t produce as much, but they also don’t eat a lot of garri,” he explained.
Nigeria’s deep cultural reliance on cassava as a food staple continues to overshadow its industrial potential.
The annual national demand for garri alone is estimated at 1 million tons, yet supply remains around 250,000 tons revealing a massive gap that perpetuates high household consumption and limits availability for processing.
“Agri-processors and agriculture can only thrive when there is surplus value,” Usman emphasized. “A nation must move beyond consumption if it wants to feed its industries.”
Until then, Nigeria’s cassava will remain more valuable to the kitchen than the factory.
