Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

512 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

quality standards and at a reasonable cost; (iii) all agree on the fact that grinders are the best placed

to ensure consistent quality in flour made of wheat and cassava; (iv) other potential marketing outlets

can be considered at the industrial scale, especially for the production of biscuits and doughnuts (5 to

10 000 tons a year for the same interval of incorporation rate of cassava within the flour as bread); (v)

Due to drying constraints, local supplies of cassava flour by small scale processors is to remain marginal.

In addition, consumers favor French baguettes which can only be prepared with wheat flour, and which

has to be partly substituted for by cassava flour (Horus 2010).^7

Cassava cossettes for animal feeds

Cassava use in animal feeds exists in Cameroon but is confined to small family pig production units mainly in

the southern part of the country. Cassava is barely used in livestock feeding which relies on fodders because

there is a lack of information for breeders about cassava’s nutritional content. It is not part of fodder mixtures

currently in use, because supplies are insufficient and there is lack of critical mass. The potential market for

cassava cossettes in animal feeds is estimated to be around 35 000 tons a year and concerns pig and poultry

outlets. Cassava would then partly substitute for maize and the potential market would be developed if

breeders were to buy fully prepared products made of cassava or incorporate cassava into their feeding

formulae up to its full capacity.

Ready-to-use products

The only ready to use cassava by-products that exist in Cameroon are starch and cassava sticks.

Potential (and solvable) demand for those products is restricted to the minor share of the population

who purchase food and other products in supermarkets. Two ready to eat products were launched

in 2010 and are marketed on a small scale: spiced crisps produced by the GIC Talles Dry Food in

Yaoundé, and Cassava semolina, which is semolina, produced by a pilot unit set up by the Chamber of

Commerce in Douala. Supermarkets and high end restaurants are the main retailing channels for such

products and would sell more only if there was greater demand for them, which there is not at present.

Regarding cassava semolina, a pilot incubation center (CIP) with cassava processing facilities has been

inaugurated in Doula by October 2010 by the Ministry of Industry. The CIP has been designed by the

Chamber of Commerce, of Industry, Mines, and Traditional Industry of Cameroon (CCIMA), and cassava

semolina is intended to be delivered to local markets and exported.

Price structure (local markets)

In the region surrounding Douala, cassava price is lower in Melong than in other localities which have

been surveyed. Processing activities are not that diversified though. Processing is not very developed

in Bakinguili and Passim, which are a little bit far from urban centers. Cassava is more expensive in

Muyuka where processing is the main income generating activity for farmers, where the demand for

processing stimulates local markets.

(^7) According to Horus (2010), grinders have raised the point that bread baguettes made from mixed wheat/cassava
flour might have different attributes from the current one, which would necessitate its promotion and associated
costs that they are not willing to incur.