Cassava drying systems in Benin
What the crop demands, what the country imposes, and what that means for capacity.
Gari is eaten daily across Benin and produced almost entirely at village scale, roasted over wood in shallow pans by women working in heat and smoke. The product is good; the process is exhausting, inconsistent, and imposes a real health cost on the people carrying it out.
The situation in Benin
Small, well-connected and increasingly organised around a handful of export chains it does genuinely well — pineapple, cashew and soy. Cotonou port serves Niger and Burkina as well as Benin, so the transit economy is large relative to the country. Producer organisations are unusually strong, which makes aggregating consistent raw material easier here than almost anywhere else in the region.
Growing regions. the Allada plateau for pineapple, Borgou and Collines for cashew, Atacora for shea
What cassava drying demands
Cassava deteriorates within 48 hours of lifting, which makes it the most time-pressured root crop there is. Chipped and dried to 10–12 % it becomes flour, gari or an industrial starch feedstock with a shelf life measured in months rather than days. The drying itself is undemanding; the clock is the difficulty.
Harvest calendar
Year-round harvest, lifted as required. Continuous raw material availability, and therefore no idle season for the equipment.
The working campaign window as the trade runs it. It shifts a fortnight either way with the rains.
Process parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Drying temperature | 55–65 °C |
| Final moisture | 10–12 % |
| Yield (fresh : dried) | 3 : 1 |
| Cycle time | 10–16 h |
Sizing starting points from ordinary processing practice, not a validated recipe for your product. Confirm against your own intake and your buyer’s specification.
Worked sizing example
For a unit taking 12 tonnes of fresh product a day, at a yield of 3 : 1:
Illustrative figures calculated from the yield and campaign window above. They size a conversation; they do not describe any existing installation.
Fuel available in Benin
Cashew shell in Borgou and Collines, palm kernel shell in the south, cotton stalk in the northern cotton zone.
- Base load. Cashew shell · Palm kernel shell · Cotton stalk
- Supplement. Shea cake and shell · Soybean husk · Corn cob · Coconut shell
See all 27 fuels and their properties
Market and buyer requirements
Domestic and regional as gari and cassava flour, plus a diaspora export market that wants a consistent, packaged product rather than a variable artisanal one.
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The systems that hold this profile
Other crops in Benin
Pineapple · Raw cashew nut · Shea · Soybean
Cassava drying elsewhere
Frequently asked questions
What does controlled drying change for gari?
Consistency and the working conditions. Village gari is roasted over wood in open pans — good product, exhausting process, real smoke exposure. A controlled 55–65 °C to 10–12 % gives a repeatable specification and takes the operator out of the fire.
How soon after lifting must cassava be processed?
Within about 48 hours, before the root deteriorates. That is what makes cassava a siting decision as much as an equipment one — a 12 t/day chamber belongs near the fields rather than near the market, because the 10 to 16 hour drying cycle is never the part that runs out of time.
Does the export market want dried cassava?
The diaspora market wants consistent, packaged gari, which is exactly what artisanal production struggles to deliver. A 12 t/day line producing about 4 tonnes daily at 3 : 1 is the scale at which consistent packaging becomes possible, and consistency rather than volume is what the diaspora trade is short of. Year-round harvest means that line runs every month rather than for a season.
Size a unit in Benin
Tell us your daily fresh volume and target output, and we will size the chambers, the burner and the fuel available around your site.
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