Marketing Opportunities for cassava based products: An Assessment of the Industrial Potential in Kenya

Abstract

Since the era of development aid in Africa, research efforts have been focused on increasing agricultural productivity mainly through improved technology at the farm level. In spite of such programs, rural household incomes have largely remained low thereby perpetuating the relatively higher poverty level with all its negative consequences notably, low savings, low investment, low productivity and low incomes. It has now been increasingly realized that real benefits to rural communities are going to come from forward linkages of rural producers to more stable and higher value industrial markets. In turn industry too stands to benefit from increased rural household incomes in terms of higher effective demand for industrial products. Therefore, this report presents findings on the current state of the Kenyan market for starch, starch-based adhesives and high quality cassava flour for industrial purposes. An assessment of the potential for locally made cassava-based products to substitute for existing raw materials has also been attempted. KEY FINDINGS The total market for starch-based products in Kenya is estimated to be over 12,000 MT per annum. A bigger portion, about 60%, goes into the brewery industry. Other major consumers include paperboard, paper and the food sector. Native maize starch dominates the market for starch. This is mainly produced locally. Modified starches are not significant. Cassava starch has the potential to substitute maize starch in the paperboard industry. Some of the industry in this sector had used cassava starch before which they found preferable. However, use was discontinued due to inconsistency in quality and erratic supply. The manufacturing costs are high in the local scene because of inefficiencies in the production chain. At the moment production and supply of cassava starch is low and not timely. This was attributed to higher costs of local production, poor infrastructure and low raw material production The potential use of cassava in animal feeds has not been exploited in Kenya. This is mainly due to lack of information especially in terms of the processing steps and the rate of substitution of cassava for maize in the commercial animal feeds.