Cassava drying systems in Côte d'Ivoire
What the crop demands, what the country imposes, and what that means for capacity.
Cassava underpins the Ivorian diet as attiéké, the fermented semolina that is eaten daily across the country and exported to the diaspora in growing volume. Attiéké production is largely artisanal and its shelf life is short, so the product that could travel furthest is the one least able to.
The situation in Côte d'Ivoire
The largest agricultural processing economy in francophone West Africa, and the world’s largest producer of both cocoa and raw cashew. Abidjan gives it something its neighbours do not have: a deep-water port two days from the northern growing zones, which makes export-grade processing viable inland rather than only at the coast. It also means the country exports a great deal of unprocessed volume that could be processed at home, which is the gap most of these pages are about.
Growing regions. Poro and Tchologo in the north, Indénié-Djuablin and the southern forest belt
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, which is unusual and useful: cassava is lifted as needed rather than in a season, so a drying line has continuous raw material and no idle months.
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 15 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 Côte d'Ivoire
The world’s largest raw cashew producer: shell is the most available fuel in the country. Palm kernel shell and fibre in the south, cocoa pod husk throughout the forest zone.
- Base load. Cashew shell · Palm kernel shell · Cocoa pod husk
- Supplement. Palm fibre (mesocarp) · Coffee husk and parchment · Rice husk · Coconut shell
See all 27 fuels and their properties
Market and buyer requirements
Domestic attiéké and cassava flour, plus a real and underserved export market to Europe and North America for shelf-stable attiéké and gari sold to West African communities abroad.
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The systems that hold this profile
Other crops in Côte d'Ivoire
Raw cashew nut · Cocoa · Mango · Coffee · Natural rubber
Cassava drying elsewhere
Frequently asked questions
How quickly must cassava be processed after lifting?
Within about 48 hours. The root deteriorates fast once out of the ground, which makes cassava the most time-pressured crop here. The drying itself is the easy part — 55–65 °C down to 10–12 % moisture over a 10 to 16 hour cycle — and the hard part is getting 12 tonnes a day of root from the field to the chamber inside the window.
Why does year-round harvest matter?
Because it removes the seasonality problem. Cassava is lifted as needed rather than in a window, so a chamber runs close to 300 days a year instead of a hundred. At a 15 t/day intake and 3 : 1 that is roughly 1,500 tonnes of dried product annually rather than 500.
Can dried attiéké actually be exported?
That is the opportunity. Fresh attiéké keeps for days; dried to 10–12 % moisture on a 10 to 16 hour cycle it keeps for months and becomes shippable to the diaspora markets in Europe and North America, which currently buy very little of it because nobody can supply it in consistent condition.
Size a unit in Côte d'Ivoire
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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