Last updated on October 30th, 2026 at 09:52 am
Cassava chips and pellets turn a root that spoils in days into a dry commodity that keeps for months. Feed mills, ethanol plants, and starch factories buy them by the tonne, but only when moisture, starch, and cleanliness meet specifications.
Travel the highways through Igboland, Kogi, or Benue in the dry season and you will see cassava slices spread out on old sacks beside the road.
Around Ntigha, those sun-dried pieces mostly become traditional cassava flour rather than export cargo.
My phone still rings regularly with callers sourcing chips across Nigeria for China, though I never see the sellers.
This article covers how dried chips and pellets are made, how buyers grade them, and why rainy-season drying so frequently fails here.
It draws on published trade data, research on mould, and my own observations of village drying in southeastern Nigeria.
Table of Contents
Dried Chips, Not Snack Chips
The chips in this article are raw cassava slices dried for industry, not the fried snack eaten with a drink.
Snack chips are a separate recipe, covered in the guide to crunchy fried cassava chips on this site.
Abacha is another separate product, made from cooked cassava sliced into shreds or larger pieces, soaked overnight, and sun-dried.
In my area, abacha chips go to commercial abacha makers and households, never to feed mills or exporters.
What Are Dried Cassava Chips?
Dried chips are pieces of peeled fresh root sliced thin and dried until they hold little enough water to store.
Feedipedia’s cassava tuber datasheet describes washing and peeling first, followed by slicing by hand or machine.
Dried cassava averages about 80 percent starch and only 2.9 percent crude protein on a dry matter basis, the same datasheet reports.
That high starch and low protein explain why buyers treat chips as an energy source rather than a complete feed.
What Are Cassava Pellets?
Pellets are dried chips that have been ground, heated, moistened, and pressed through a die into short, uniform cylinders.
Feedipedia notes that pellets are denser, more durable, more uniform, and less dusty than chips, so they handle and ship better.
Shipping costs and European dust complaints drove the move from chips to pellets from the late 1960s onward.
Hard pellets, an even more compact industrial form, followed in the early 1980s for long sea voyages.
| Feature | Dried chips | Pellets |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Irregular dried slices | Uniform pressed cylinders |
| Processing | Peel, slice, dry | Chips ground, conditioned, and pressed |
| Dust | Higher | Lower |
| Density for shipping | Lower | Higher |
| Main buyers today | Ethanol and feed plants in China | Feed compounders needing uniform material |
How Dried Cassava Chips Are Made
- Harvest mature roots: process them within a day or two, because fresh roots deteriorate quickly after digging.
- Wash and peel: remove soil and the full peel, since peel and grit raise fiber, ash, and cyanide.
- Slice evenly: thin, uniform slices dry faster and more evenly than thick or ragged pieces.
- Dry thoroughly: spread slices on trays, clean concrete, or sacks, turning them until they snap cleanly.
- Sort and bag: discard discolored pieces, then pack dry chips in clean bags off the ground.
Chips dried on raised trays look better and dry more evenly than those on concrete floors, according to Feedipedia.
Slicing machines speed up step three, and the options are compared in the guide to the cassava chipping machine.
Why Rainy-Season Chips Fail
Chips dried under the sun in the rainy season mostly grow mould in my area, turning brown or black.
Those chips are unreliable for flour, feed, or sale, and helping farmers avoid this loss is work I want to take on.
Mould is more than a color problem, because some moulds produce aflatoxins and other mycotoxins.
A 2019 study in Food Control found yeast and mould counts above limits in all improved chip samples tested from Madagascar and Tanzania.
Some of those sun-dried chip and flour samples also carried aflatoxin B1 above regulatory limits, the researchers reported.
Oven or cabinet dryers give the control that sun-drying cannot, and the cassava dryer machine guide compares the main types.
How Cassava Pellets Are Manufactured
- Grind the chips: dried chips are milled into a coarse meal of even particle size.
- Condition the meal: steam or water softens the meal and partly gelatinizes the starch, which binds the pellet.
- Press through a die: a pellet mill forces the conditioned meal through holes, cutting short cylinders.
- Cool and dry: fresh pellets are cooled so they harden and lose the moisture added during conditioning.
- Screen and store: fines are sieved out and returned to the press, while finished pellets go to bulk storage.
Pelleting adds cost, so it pays only when buyers reward the lower dust, higher density, and uniform quality.
Quality Specifications Buyers Check
Chinese ethanol buyers set clear targets, listed by the Nigeria Cassava Investment Accelerator in April 2026.
| Parameter | Typical buyer requirement |
|---|---|
| Starch | At least 67 percent |
| Moisture | Below 14 percent |
| Fiber | Below 5 percent |
| Sand and silica | Below 3 percent |
Feed buyers also watch cyanide, and Feedipedia treats roots under 100 milligrams of HCN per kilogram of dry matter as generally safe.
Drying on bare ground adds sand that pushes ash above limits, which is another reason to dry on sacks or trays.
Who Buys Cassava Chips and Pellets
Feedipedia reports that Thailand supplied about 80 percent of dried cassava exports in 2009, with Vietnam close behind.
Europe was once the main destination, with the Netherlands taking 45 to 50 percent of world dried cassava.
After the European Union imposed import quotas in the 1980s, China replaced Europe as the leading market.
Chinese buyers typically need 700 to 1,400 tonnes per day, while many Nigerian processors manage only 15 to 30 tonnes.
Current export prices are tracked monthly in the report on cassava chips price per ton, so this article leaves prices there.
End Uses in Brief
- Ethanol: China ferments large volumes of chips into fuel and industrial alcohol, explained in the cassava ethanol production guide.
- Animal feed: chips and pellets replace part of the maize in pig and poultry diets, with limits set out in cassava in animal feeds.
- Traditional flour: in southeastern Nigeria, sun-dried chips are milled into flour, as the traditional cassava flour method describes.
The Reality for Nigerian Producers
Chip trading is rare in Igboland, and I have no reliable local price per bag to share.
Callers who say they are sourcing for export rarely explain who supplies them, which makes the trade hard to verify.
Nigerian chips cost about $250 per tonne FOB against $222 from Southeast Asia, the same accelerator report found.
Freight to China adds about $75 per tonne from Nigeria versus $12 from Southeast Asia, leaving a $91 delivered gap.
Closing that gap needs larger volumes, reliable drying, and consistent grading, not just more roots.
Documentation for shipping abroad is listed in the walkthrough on exporting cassava from Africa.
Drying chips locally can still rescue roots during a glut, as the cassava glut explainer argues.
Conclusion
Cassava chips and pellets give fresh roots months of shelf life and open markets in feed, ethanol, and flour.
Chips are peeled, sliced, and dried, while pellets are ground, conditioned, and pressed for denser, cleaner shipping.
Buyers expect at least 67 percent starch, under 14 percent moisture, and little sand.
Rainy-season sun-drying invites mould, so cabinet or oven dryers protect quality far better.
Nigerian exporters still face a large freight gap compared with Southeast Asian suppliers.
For training on drying and quality, contact Cassava Pathway through this website or WhatsApp.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between cassava chips and pellets?
Chips are dried slices of peeled root, while pellets are ground, conditioned, and pressed chips.
Pellets are denser, more uniform, and less dusty, so they ship more easily.
Why do sun-dried cassava chips turn black?
Black or brown chips carry mould from drying in rainy weather or on damp surfaces.
Mouldy chips can contain mycotoxins, so sort them out and never sell them.
What moisture content should dried cassava chips have?
Export buyers generally require moisture below 14 percent, alongside at least 67 percent starch.
Chips should snap cleanly when dry, and storage bags must stay off the ground.
Who buys cassava chips from Nigeria?
Chinese ethanol plants are the main export buyers, though they need very large daily volumes.
Locally, dried chips mostly become traditional flour, and some go into animal feed.
Chimeremeze Emeh is a tropical crop farmer and chemical engineer from Ntigha, Isiala Ngwa North LGA, Abia State, Eastern Nigeria, specializing in cassava and palm oil, with over 30 years of hands-on experience growing, harvesting, and processing cassava. He grows TMS series, TME 419, and local traditional varieties on his own farms and operates a small-scale cassava flour and starch production business through Cassava Pathway, which he founded as a CAMA-registered agribusiness in 2024. He is also the founder of Palm Oil Pathway, where he applies the same tropical farming expertise. His farms are located in Ntigha, Abia State.