As the market price of garri is this high at the moment, it is not still a guarantee that a commercial garri processor would produce at a profit. Having access to premium markets or having access to low-cost cassava are the only factor that can make a garri processor produce and sell profitably at this time. Just forget about how much garri is being sold in the market. As long as market price of garri keeps flowing in same direction as the selling price of cassava tuber, there will be no special period that garri production economic would be favoured by the price of its raw material.

That moment the landing cost of tubers get to 50% of your projected or targeted revenue, know very well that you have to do everything possible to cut down on your operation cost and other overhead expenses. Else, that production will run into a loss. If you observe that the probable landing cost of tuber you intended to use for a production will get up to 60% of your estimated revenue from that production, it is better you do not run that production at all, because it will be at a loss irrespective of whether you engage in mechanical or manual production.

From the above explanations, two things are very paramount; regardless of the season of cassava surplus or scarcity. One is the fact that you must locate your factory in an environment where you can easily get cassava at the price that garri production business can accommodate. This has little to do with having cassava tremendously cultivated in that area. If you have fufu processors or industrial buyers who can afford to pay higher price for tuber in same area you are operating, you will definitely have price/profitability challenges.

As a Commercial garri processor, if you have also located your facility among numerous cottage/local processors, be very much ready to find different markets for your own product, because your own Economic of Production cannot afford to sell at same price cottage processors will be willing to sell within same market regardless of kind of mechanization you engage. Again, I am saying it again that Commercial Garri Processing cannot accommodate too much logistic on cassava supply. Nearness to non-competitive raw material is very paramount to the success of the business.

There are cases where one can use technology deployed to cheat on production cost, still landing cost of tuber should be managed as much as possible to be below 50% of targeted revenue from that batch production. Apart from the cost of the cassava tuber, the other major cost center in Commercial Garri production is the cost of frying, particularly if you are doing manual frying. With an effective mechanical fryer, that is producing quality garri, it is equally important to put the machine efficiency into consideration. If you have a mechanical fryer that requires 8 litres of petrol to run for 9-10 hours and will deliver up to 500kg of garri within this period, it is still a good way to go despite the selling price of petrol at this time.

I had given a hint on siting production facility around Abuja and Nassarawa state before. In these areas, one can still access good supply of tubers without much domestic and industrial competitions. Deploying mechanical fryer will help take care of non-availability of professional manual fryers. Easy access to food markets in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano is a major plus for whoever is operating in this area.
Again, there are some cluster production locations where the cost of manual frying is relatively cheap and there is no any need for going for mechanical frying. Example of such locations is the Garri Production Ground at Ilora in Oyo state. Taking production to such locations especially during challenging time will help in many ways to lower production cost and enables one to survive in the highly competitive mass market especially in the challenging seasons like this.

Summarily, if you are considering coming into this business of Commercial Garri processing, it is important that you give full consideration to your ENTRY, OPERATIONS and MARKET Approaches right from the start. Unless one is able to get these right, the business will continue to struggle and will eventually crumble. For those who have already taken one wrong step or the other, making U-turn to do it right is your best bet. And the earlier you take that bold step, the better for you and your business.

If you are interested in getting my e-book on HOW TO RUN A COMMERCIAL GARRI PROCESSING BUSINESS PROFITABLY at the discount price of N2000, connect with me on WhatsApp by clicking https:///2348100975775.

God no go shame us.

Kazeem Lamidi
+2348100975775

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