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| AFRICABIZ
VOL 1 - ISSUE: 57
JANUARY
15- FEBRUARY 14, 2004
Previous
Issue
Editor: Dr. Bienvenu-Magloire Quenum
editor@africabiz.org
| | A
WORD FROM THE EDITOR
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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
AFRICABIZ ONLINE team wish you a happy and prosperous business year
2004 WARS
ARE FADING OUT IN AFRICA
If one looks back to four year ago,
civil and inter-states wars were raging across Africa. Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sierra
Leone, Sudan, and Ivory-Coast. Some of these countries were engulfed in devastating
wars since two to three decades running (Angola and Sudan). Ivory Coast is a particular
sad case that experienced 5 months of a bloody civil war - September 19, 2002
- January 2002 followed by a still persisting situation of "no peace no war".
However, since few months, dating back to June 2003, the situation is
changing quickly towards peace. The international community - the United States
of America (Sudan) , UK (Sierra Leone), France (Ivory Coast) and UN(Liberia) -
are putting pressure on warring parties.
Thus, negotiations are now
underway in several of these countries to reaching peace settlement; and consequently
wars drums are getting less and less louder in Africa. It is to early to know
for sure if all this is just a reprieve before the tempest. Yet, one should acknowledge
that the mood is changing.
Warring parties finally realizing that the
negotiation table is the best way to solving political disputes and conflicts
and save countries from total disintegration. Click
here to read more about the matter.
-
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 February
15, 2004.
Dr. B.M. Quenum
Editor
of AFRICABIZ
| | | |
BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES IN AFRICA
| |
-
Several business opportunities - component parts of the Integrated Developing Scheme described in Africans, Stop Being Poor! are listed in following table.
| 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,
56) | -
INTRODUCTION TO TROPICAL ROOTS AND TUBERS: IV
-INVESTMENT BRIEFS TO PRODUCING CASSAVA CHIPS
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.
This 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
-
INVESTMENT BRIEFS ON A SMALL-SCALE CASSAVA CHIPS PRODUCTION
UNIT
Briefs on the preparation of fresh cassava prior to the production of chips and
pellets are reported in previous
issue. Let us consider a small-scale production unit operating under following
conditions:
| - Hand
peeling output: 25kg of fresh cassava per hour and per person.
-
Mechanical - pedal maneuvered - slicer output: 500kg of sliced (chipped /
peeled cassava) per hour and per slicer [Source: Reported in Root Crop
Processing (1993) Food Cycle Technology Books, Intermediate Technology Publications
Ltd. London and at
this link]
- Weight loss 25% per kg of fresh root.
- Finished
sun dried cassava chip moisture content 10%. - 1 kg of fresh cassava gives
750gr of peeled cassava.
- At 75% initial moisture content, 1kg of fresh
cassava gives 750gr of peeled cassava at 56.25% moisture content.
-
1 kg of fresh cassava yields: (.750 kg - [0750 x 46.25%]) = 403 gr of
sun dried chips at 10% of moisture content | Conditions
above listed lead us to tailor the medium-scale chips production as follows:
| -
50 peelers to peel 50 x 25kg = 1,250kg of fresh cassava per hour
or 1,250 x 8 = 10,000kg per day - 10 metric tons per day that yield
7,500kg of peeled cassava (2,500kg of wastes).
- 2 pedal maneuvered slicers that yield
each 500 kg of Chips per hour. (Maneuvered by 2 workers).
- 6 handlers
to feed the peelers and the slicers.
- Daily production of sun dried chips:
10,000kg of fresh cassava x .403 = 4,030kg o or 4 metric tons.
- Monthly production (26 days) = 4.030 x 26 = 105 metric tons
and yearly production (over 10 months): = 1,048 metric tons.
- Raw material
(fresh cassava) purchasing price: US$ 10 per metric ton.
- Bulk
dried chip selling price: (ex-works) = 40 US$
- Waste (peeled cassava
skin for animal feed preparation) selling price: US$ 2 metric ton. |
-
OPERATING DATA Based
on above conditions the following operating data are obtained:
| | Amount
US) | |
INVESTMENT
| | Working
Space Layout: Peeling, slicing, handling and storage.
Etc. 300 sq. meter) |
1,500
| |
2- Processing Equipment: 2 pedal maneuvered mechanical
slicers, knifes, 40 plastic containers (10 kg content)), drying shelves, 500 m
of black plastic sheet, packaging equipment, 100 pairs of iron-braided gloves,
plastic working clothes, 10 barrows. Etc.. |
4,500
| |
Total
investment | 6,000 |
| OPERATING
COSTS | |
Operating
Expenses: Raw material
purchasing (fresh cassava)- production costs - insurance - utilities - staff and
hands / management salaries - amortization - interests on loan. Etc.
| 32,000 |
| PRODUCTION
COST PER METRIC TON OF CHIPS |
| 1,047.800
metric tons of sun dried cassava's chips = | 31 |
| GENERATED
REVENUES* | | Chips : 1,047.800 x 40 = | 41,912 |
| Wastes
= 650 metric tons x 2 US$ | 1.300 |
| TOTAL
REVENUES |
43,212 |
|
GROSS PROFIT |
| GROSS
PROFIT | 11,212 |
REMARKS
1- This small-scale operation to producing cassava's chips
is clearly a profit making business that creates at least 60 jobs. One can
vision the impact it will have in the life of African countries' rural folks.
One can also forecast the impact on the global economy if 1,000 operations like
this one are established: 60,000 jobs (transformers) will be created in rural
areas and the development of the cultivation of the raw material will be boosted
altogether with the expansion of other activities such as transportation and packaging.
2- The selling price (40 US$ per metric ton - ex-works) is highly
competitive as an addition of even 100% for C.I.F. - Cost Insurance and Freight
expenses and taxes - would make the CIF offered price lower than the pricing on
the international market place - as shown by figures (European Union) in Table
below:
SELLING
PRICES PER METRIC TON - US$
IN EUROPEAN UNION MARKET PLACE |
| 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 |
| 183 | 137 | 144 | 177 | 161 | 158 | 150 |
| Source:
United Nation Organization For Food and Agriculture | 3-
Production had been calculated over only 10 months a year; to taking into account
sunshine's deficiency for two months. The weight loss par Kg of fresh cassava
had been put at 25% (hand peeling); this could be improve to only 10-15% weight
loss if mechanical peeling is chosen.
4- Cassava pellets are just agglomerated
chip that are easier to transport and are environmentally friendly.. Pellets selling
price is a bit higher than chips' ones.
Figures listed in Tables
above show that the production of pellets and chips on medium--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.
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