Garri Business in Nigeria: How to Get Started

Nigeria is a country suitable for garri production, processing and sales. This is because it is the largest producer of cassava in the world. Nigeria is regarded as the biggest cassava plantation country in Africa, especially in its southern part. The temperature, moisture, weather in Nigeria is very suitable for cassava plantation.

This means that the country has the raw materials needed for garri production and you will not have to worry about the supply of raw materials. Garri is also eaten by most Nigerians, whether in the upper or lower class. You can be involved in the garri business via its production, processing, and packaging. You can then sell the processed garri in your local community.

Garri Business in Nigeria

Garri Business in Nigeria: How to Get Started

The Nigerian government also supports and encourages people to start garri processing business in Nigeria. Another benefit of the garri business is that it requires low investment.

As one who processes garri, you can supply garri to sellers in rural and urban areas, caterers, hotels, restaurants, boarding schools, residential areas and basically anywhere where people need food and refreshments.

You can also take it a notch higher by making proper arrangements to have your goods exported; In foreign countries, there is a high demand for garri.

Starting Garri business in Nigeria

One of the major factors in production is the constant availability and affordability of raw materials. In Nigeria, the production of garri is enabled with the all-year production and supply of the root crop as obtainable in Nigeria. Garri processing is very simple. If you want to start processing garri in large quantities, you can purchase a complete set of garri processing machines. However, if you are on a limited budget, you can do some manual work. Processing garri only requires the following basic equipments, which are:

  • A cassava peeler
  • Cassava grater
  • Garri presser
  • Garri fryer

Due to the low investment and high demand of garri, your business can earn back the machine cost very quickly and also make a profit.

How to Start Garri Processing Business

You do not need any professional qualifications to start processing garri. It is something anyone can successfully engage in as long as you have the discipline needed to run a business and the practical knowledge on how to harvest and process cassava into garri. Processing of garri goes through this process: Cassava propagation, harvesting, peeling and washing of the cassava tubers, grinding into flour, squeezing and drying of the flour and finally frying, drying and packaging of garri.

Capital needed to start Garri production

You can start a large scale Garri processing business with just five hundred thousand naira and a piece of land. If you will not be financing yourself, you can take loans from the appropriate institutions or find investors for the business. Your capital should cover the cost of planting, processing, packaging and mobility.

Location

If you are interested in planting your own cassava, it is best to purchase the land in a rural or isolated area. You should also get a land that is rich in loamy soil because cassava grows better on rich loamy soil. Building:

You will need an open-sided building so you will be able to receive fresh cassava roots directly from the suppliers. The building can also be divided into two additional parts which can be tagged a wet section and a dry section.

The wet section is the area where all the wet operations after peeling the cassava are done. Wet operations include washing, grating, fermentation, and pressing of the water.

After this, the fermented and de-watered substance would be sieved or re-grated using the same grater or a separate one.

The content is then moved to the dry section.

Operations in the dry section begin with roasting and ending with packaging.

After the packaging, the product is moved to the store or supermarkets. Garri that has been well processed and properly packaged could last for at least one year.

ow, at a reasonable level of gari processing factory, where half a tonne of gari could be processed daily, a grater, about 500-1000kg capacity per hour, to grate freshly peeled cassava roots, would be needed.

Planting Cassava

Plant your stems carefully and properly. Ensure you weed regularly and apply fertilizer as the need arises. Harvest cassava only when tubers are fully matured. It is crucial that you select healthy stems to boost your harvest.

You do not have to be the one to plant the cassava yourself. You can also purchase healthy cassava stems from rural farmers who you are sure to harvest mature tubers at a much lower costs

Ensure you locate your production facility close to your farm. This will reduce the cost of transporting harvested cassava tubes for processing.

Processing cassava into Garri

Garri is processed by peeling, washing, grating and fermenting the mature cassava roots.

After three to five days of fermentation, the grated mash is bagged, de-watered and grated again.

The second grating will make the granule smaller and friable.

The granulated product is then roasted through a fryer. This could be done manually or mechanically. You can fry the garri using charcoal, firewood, diesel or gas burners.

Equipments needed to start a Garri business in Nigeria

Other machines and tools needed include:

  • A press
  • An automated or semi-automated frying machine or roaster
  • A sieving machine
  • Huge buckets for fermentation
  • Packaging bags and sealers.
  • Branded nylon bags
  • A hand sealer
  • Small generator
  • Weighing machine

Packaging

After frying, garri should be put in air sacks and left in the open to avoid dampness and lumping and to aid preservation. The packaging is the final and other most important stages. Ensure the packaging is done neatly and sealed against pests. Your packaging should also be attractive and of good quality. While local communities might not care about the packaging and mostly use plain sacks, but you can be a little extra so as to make your product outstanding.

 

 

5 thoughts on “Garri Business in Nigeria: How to Get Started”

  1. Thank you. I want to go into garri business but not production. I want to buy from production sites in wholesale and supply to shops and households. I want to know where I can actually purchase them and how much capital I can speculate for to start. Thank you

  2. Hello,

    Many thanks for this write up.
    I truly desire to go into garri production
    I already have a piece of land where i can start the business.
    I cannot go into cassava plantation but i can buy from farmers and i know where to get them from in large quantity.
    Though i don’t have the capital to start yet but i have a land where i can use.
    My question is how can i get these 4 basic machines required to start this business i.e. cassava piller, grater, preser and the fryer.
    Also i need to have the idea of their costs of the machine so i can start planing to buying them.
    Thank you,

    Habeeb Fashina

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