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Dear visitor and international investor,
We
warmly welcome you, if this is
your first visit to Africabiz
Online - The ultimate newsletter
on trading and investing in 49
sub-Saharan African countries.
If you are a regular and faithful
reader, welcome back.
HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
YEAR 2004
We at AFRICABIZ ONLINE wish you and your loved
ones a very festive Yule 2003-period; a happy and prosperous
business year 2004
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NEW URLs FOR AFRICABIZ WEBSITES
For efficient management purposes, the URLs to AFRICABIZ
various websites had been modified as from end of October
2003. New URLs read as follows:
Click here to read about: Annual Growth Rate
Below 10% is not Enough
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Contributor's Guidelines are here
to review. Your contribution on "How African
countries / entrepreneurs could bridge the developing
gap" is welcome.
Many thanks for dropping by and
see you here on January 15, 2004.
Dr. B.M. Quenum
Editor
of AFRICABIZ
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Several business opportunities - component parts of the Integrated Developing Scheme described in Africans, Stop Being Poor! are listed in following table.
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a-
SHEA BUTTER (Issues 5,
6,
7,
11,
12,
13)
b- BLUE GOLD (Issues 14,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19)
c- FREEZE-DRIED PAPAIN (Issues 20,
21,
22
and here)
d- KENAF (Issues 23,
24)
e- VEGETABLE OIL (Issues 25,
26,
27
and 28)
f- CEREALS (Issues 30,
31,
32,
33)
g- FRUITS (34,
35,
36,
37,
38,
39,
40,
42,
43,
44,
45,
46)
h- ESSENTIAL OILS (47,
48,
49,
50,
51,
52)
i- ROOTS & TUBERS 54,
55)
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INTRODUCTION TO TROPICAL ROOTS AND
TUBERS: III - PREPARATION OF ROOTS
TO PRODUCING VALUE ADDED PRODUCTS - A - CHIPS AND PELLETS
Cassava,
potato, and sweet potato rank
among the top 10 food crops produced in developing countries.
Sub-Saharan Africa - SSA - is expected to experience
the fastest growth in food demand for all roots and
tubers, largely driven by rapid population's growth.
SSA share in the total demand for developing countries
will be 53 percent, with cassava accounting for two-thirds
of the increase.
The series started
with the delivery available here and deals with
the processing of the raw material. Cultivation
techniques and particularities are not considered. Here
available is a report on how
to develop Cassava as a strategic crop
Rare are industrial concerns established in SSA countries
that transform Cassava into value added products - as
reported in the diagram available here
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FRESH CASSAVA HAD A SHORT LIVE
While Yam roots can be stored for a lengthy period up
to 12 months (that is the case in Benin)
and still keep physical integrity and taste, Cassava
roots are more perishable. They deteriorate very quickly
soon after harvest and this occurs in two separate phases:
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Physiological or primary deterioration, which
begins within 24 hours after harvest and is characterized
by blue or brown discoloration of the vascular
bundles of the roots, called "vascular streaking".
� Microbial or secondary deterioration. Usually
occurs 5-7 days after harvest and involves a wide
spectrum of fungi and bacteria which develop in
the flesh, causing a variety of wet and dry rots.
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The rapid post-harvest deterioration of Cassava roots
represents a problem for the supply chain to processing
plants. It is particularly difficult to set up buffer
stock. In traditional small-scale processing the conservation
is done immersing the peeled roots in fresh water, which
is renewed once a day for three days running. That is
an avenue to explore for buffer stock setting to large-scale
processing. For
more on how to handle fresh cassava prior to processing,
click here
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BRIEFS ON THE PREPARATION OF CASSAVA PRIOR TO CHIPS
AND PELLETS' PRODUCTION
The root of cassava and the leaves contain cyanogenic
glucocides that are dangerous for human or animal consumption.
These cyanide components have to be removed before the
root and the leaves can be consumed. The toxic cyanide
component are concentrated into the peel of cassava
root. The ratio of glucocides compared to the starchy
flesh varying between 5-10 : 1. Hence, for a root composed
of 15% peel with a total cyanide content of 950 mg/kg
(fresh weight basis) and 35 mg/kg in the flesh, 83%
of the total cyanide is removed by peeling (Source)
The traditional processing techniques of chips are laborious.
In villages women wash, peel and cut the root to pieces
that are dried by sunshine on flat surface; on roofs,
concrete surfaces, mats or along roadsides. One person
can handle 25 kg of roots per hour and the loss of weight
could reach 25-30 % of the initial weight of the fresh
root. Mechanical peeling had been developed in Thailand,
the Philippines and Indonesia that reduce the loss of
weight to 10-15%.
Wind is a fundamental factor during the drying process,
which comprises two phases.
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First phase: the chips lose moisture very
quickly down to about 20% of moisture content
(mc), wind speed passing over the chips is more
important than air temperature and relative humidity.
Under cloudy weather or even at night, the first
drying phase can be completed so long as there
is sufficient air movement through the chips.
- Second phase: drying is much slower and
needs a relative humidity of not higher than 65%
to dry the chips to a moisture content of 13%
that is considered safe for long term storage.
Except during periods of actual rain, in most
places the temperature will increase sufficiently
during the day to reduce ambient humidity to the
required level to complete this second stage of
drying. [For
more click here]
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The use of solar dryers helps obtaining homogenous dried
cassava chips. Solar dryers drawing exist on the Internet
that could be locally produced. There are commercial
sun dryers manufactured and sold in France, Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines. Small-scale
drying technologies are available here in ADOBE PDF.
Solar dryers of the cabinet type are referred to as
Brace
dryer. It is a wooden structure covered with
plastic sheets that form the solar collector. On days
with adequate sunshine, average temperatures are of
the order of 65� to 75�C, which is suitable for a variety
of products, such as vegetables, grain, meat as well
as cassava chips. For an extensive description of improved
solar dryers of Brace
type click here and here for an excellent
books' review or crops drying
Producing
pellets and chips on large-scale are opportunities not
to be missed by African countries. Cassava pellets will
help
not only developing livestock's production, but
can be used to produce glues and alcohol that are currently
imported from abroad in most African countries.
In
next issue
57 Investment data will be considered for chips
and pellets production.
Adobe
Acrobat Reader is available here
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companies, government
agencies,
international development
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