Cashing in on cassava

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's one of the world’s most versatile crops and a critical source of food security - it’s also a commodity under increasing global demand.

Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of the root vegetable, cassava, but export numbers are tiny.

Currently, the country imports products that compete with the indigenous crop.

We hear from farmers, entrepreneurs and leading agronomists on plans to industrialise Nigeria’s cassava industry and realise its economic potential.

Produced and presented by Laura Heighton-Ginns Additional sound mixing by James Bradshaw

(Image: Mrs Kemi farms a five hectare smallholding in south west Nigeria. Image credit: Bassey Oluwakemi Ibilola)

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's one of the world's most versatile crops and a critical source of food security,
0:10.8	as well as a commodity under increasing global demand.
0:15.4	I'm Laura Heightenjins, and today on Business Daily from the BBC World Service,
0:20.0	we're finding out about cassava,
0:22.2	a beige root vegetable, and so some believe a store of vast buried wealth.
0:29.1	Nigeria is the world's largest cassava producer, but barely exports,
0:33.9	the country often importing products that compete with this indigenous crop.
0:38.4	They have imported so much starch to an extent that our farmers are now selling at a loss,
0:43.1	which is very, very devastating.
0:45.3	So how can Nigeria capitalize on cassava?
0:48.8	That's all coming up on today's program.
0:56.8	This is Peckham, Southeast London, also known as Little Lagos for its big British
1:02.4	Nigerian community.
1:04.5	And through popular demand, it's easy to get your hands on cassava here.
1:10.5	I'm with Dr. Louise Aboumi from the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich.
1:18.1	What is cassava?
1:20.6	Well, cassava is a root crop. If you think of a elongated potato perhaps, and you can boil it, fry it like chips, form a powder with it.
1:32.0	We constitute it like instant mash.
1:34.5	And you eat it with stew, so you don't eat it alone, typically.
1:39.9	So we're stepping into BIM's African food store.
1:45.3	And straight away, we've got cassava.
1:49.0	£2.49 a kilo.
	...

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