We Are Present All Along The Cassava Value Chain
Grower
We are from an extended family of small-holders, which is anchored on agricultural values like intercropping. Cassava is a crop at center of that way of life. We only grow about 5% of what we process, however, being a small scale grower keeps us intimately in touch with our community of small holders.
Processor
In Nigeria, women control majority of the activities involved in cassava processing, particularly in our region which is a top supplier of the end products to the northern states of Nigeria. Dozens of women in our extended family process cassava for Abodunde Farms Limited using ancient techniques. The main cassava based flour we produce is called Gari.
Distributor
We distribute cassava flour is several forms and in several ways. We sell wholesale unlabeled product directly into ancient traditional markets, and we sell to other wholesalers, as well as to regional retail in branded or white label packaging.
The Crop
"Bread of the Tropics"
17th c. painting, cassava plant and tubers by Albert Eckhout in Brazil
Cassava was unknown to the Old World before the discovery of America. There is archaeological evidence of two major centers of origin for this crop, one in Mexico and Central America and the other in northeastern Brazil. Portuguese settlers found the native Indians in Brazil growing the cassava plant. and Pierre Martyr wrote in 1494 that the "poisonous roots" of a yucca were used in the preparation of bread. It is believed that cassava was introduced to the western coast of Africa in about the sixteenth century by slave merchants where it quickly became an important crop. Today, Nigeria accounts for 20% of total global output. Cassava is the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize. The importance of cassava to Africans is epitomized in the Ewe (a language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin) name for the plant, Agbeli, meaning "There is Life”.
The harvesting of manioc or cassava root, ou histoire phisico-economique des vegetaux de la Torride, 1789
The Flour
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Tapioca Starch (USA), Gari (Nigeria), and Farina (Brazil) are all variations of flour obtained from the dried root of the Yuca (Cassava or Manioc) plant and all have many culinary uses.
Preparing Cassava flour in Central America, 1909.
Cassava flour comes in several varieties depending on how it is made. At Abodunde Farms Limited we process cassava into gari flour 100% natural, no chemical additives. We employ ancient processing techniques which yield the unique yellow "sour" tasting gari flour that is prized all over West Africa.
A large majority of customers in the tropics look for naturally occurring raw ingredients in their food that are processed without modifying the native chemical structure of any of the produce. In the old world regions of this planet, the term "natural" is very defined and covers a scope of genuinely natural occurring and processed products within the food manufacturing industry.
Fast Facts​
