Onion drying systems in Burkina Faso
What the crop demands, what the country imposes, and what that means for capacity.
Onion is one of the highest-value irrigated crops in the Burkinabè dry season and one of the worst stored. Losses running to a third of the harvest are routine, because bulbs are held in traditional stores through heat and humidity they were never going to survive. The value is destroyed after the crop is successfully grown.
The situation in Burkina Faso
Landlocked, so every tonne of finished product travels by road to Abidjan, Lomé or Tema before it reaches a ship. That single fact shapes the whole processing case: fresh fruit cannot make the journey, dried fruit can, and the margin sits with whoever removes the water before the truck leaves. Grid supply outside the two main cities is intermittent enough that a drying plan built around electric heat is a drying plan built around a generator.
Growing regions. Cascades, Hauts-Bassins and Comoé — Orodara, Banfora and Bobo-Dioulasso
What onion drying demands
Onion is grown in irrigated dry-season volume and stored badly, with post-harvest losses across the Sahel that routinely reach a third of the crop. Sliced to 4–6 mm and dried to 6–8 %, it becomes a stable ingredient product with a year-round market and none of the storage rot.
Harvest calendar
February to May, with the bulk lifted in March and April. Storage losses begin immediately and accumulate through the hot season that follows, which is when prices would otherwise be rising.
The working campaign window as the trade runs it. It shifts a fortnight either way with the rains.
Process parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Drying temperature | 55–60 °C |
| Final moisture | 6–8 % |
| Yield (fresh : dried) | 9 : 1 |
| Cycle time | 14–20 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 8 tonnes of fresh product a day, at a yield of 9 : 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 Burkina Faso
Burkina combines cashew shell (Cascades, Hauts-Bassins), abundant cotton stalk after the cotton campaign, and shea cake. Mango peel supplements during the mango campaign itself.
- Base load. Cashew shell · Cotton stalk · Shea cake and shell
- Supplement. Corn cob · Groundnut shell · Sesame stalk · Dried mango peel
See all 27 fuels and their properties
Market and buyer requirements
Domestic and regional — Burkina supplies Ghana, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire — as dried slices and as onion powder for the food-processing trade. Dried product also travels far better than bulbs on the region’s roads.
Explore further
The systems that hold this profile
Other crops in Burkina Faso
Mango · Shea · Raw cashew nut · Tomato · Sesame
Onion drying elsewhere
Frequently asked questions
What does drying onion save that storage does not?
Storage loses roughly a third of a Sahelian onion crop to rot and sprouting through the hot season. Dried to 6–8 % moisture, the same bulbs become a stable product with a twelve-month life and no cold chain, at a yield of about 9 : 1 fresh to dried.
What temperature suits onion?
55–60 °C on a 14 to 20 hour cycle, sliced at 4–6 mm. Higher temperatures drive off the volatile sulphur compounds that give onion its value as an ingredient, leaving a product that looks right and tastes of very little.
Can onion share a chamber with mango?
Not at the same time, and not without thought. Onion carries volatile aromatics that transfer to fruit dried afterwards, so a unit doing both needs a cleaning cycle between crops. In Burkina the seasons help: onion runs February to May at 55–60 °C, mango March to June at 65–70 °C.
Size a unit in Burkina Faso
Tell us your daily fresh volume and target output, and we will size the chambers, the burner and the fuel available around your site.
Request a quote