Last updated on July 11th, 2026 at 04:58 pm
Nigerian cassava farmers’ experience in the cassava industry has been mostly one of doing everything alone, with no electricity and no government support, yet this same crop has built billion-dollar export sectors in other countries entirely.
Cassava rarely makes headlines, yet it quietly supports hundreds of millions of livelihoods and moves billions of dollars through farms, factories, and export terminals every year.
Some countries turned that scale into genuine industrial power.
Others, despite growing far more of the crop, never did.
If you want to see how a single root actually moves from field to table, our cassava value chain guide covers that journey step by step.
This page zooms out further, moving through every major segment the crop feeds into and finishing with nine country case studies that show exactly why some cassava industries thrive while others stall.
My own farming community sits inside one of the stalled stories, and that shapes how this guide reads throughout.
Table of Contents
What Is the Cassava Industry?
The cassava industry spans far more than farming alone. It includes the farming sector itself, processing and manufacturing, global trade and export, research institutions, government policy, and the food and industrial companies that turn raw roots into everything from bread to bioplastics.
Our introduction to cassava farming and cassava processing guide covers the farming and processing stages in full.
This page stays at the industry level: scale, structure, and policy.
The Global Cassava Industry at a Glance
Global cassava production reached 333.7 million tonnes in 2023, the latest complete year in FAOSTAT’s records, according to industry research from Krungsri Bank.
Africa produced 63.9 percent of that total, followed by Asia at 27.8 percent and the Americas at 8.2 percent.
Nigeria led all producers at 18.8 percent of global output, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo at 13.5 percent, Thailand at 9.2 percent, and Ghana at 8.0 percent.
Global export volume of cassava products totaled 26.3 million tonnes, with Thailand supplying the majority of it.
For full country-by-country production figures, trade flows, and pricing trends, our dedicated cassava market guide covers those numbers in depth.
Global Cassava Market Size
The global cassava market was valued at roughly USD 47 billion in 2024, with projections reaching over USD 63 billion by 2032, according to industry market research.
Within that figure, the processed cassava segment alone reached a volume of 324.4 million tonnes in 2024, based on data from IMARC Group.
Our native cassava starch market guide and cassava starch pulp market guide break down the processed-product side of this figure in more detail.
Economic Importance of the Cassava Industry
Cassava supports the livelihoods of up to 500 million farmers, processors, and traders worldwide, according to a global cassava development strategy prepared by FAO and IFAD.
Despite that scale, research published on ScienceDirect found that more than 80 percent of smallholder cassava producers in Africa still operate at subsistence level.
That gap, massive reach paired with limited formal industrialization, runs through nearly every section below.
Major Segments of the Cassava Industry
- Food industry: fresh roots, garri, fufu, tapioca, cassava flour, and chips make up the largest segment by volume. See more on the 47 cassava products guide cover this segment fully.
- Starch industry: native and modified starches feed food, paper, and textile manufacturing. See industrial uses of cassava starch.
- Sweetener industry: glucose syrup, fructose syrup, and maltodextrin are produced through enzymatic hydrolysis of cassava starch, covered in our cassava sweeteners.
- Animal feed industry: cassava peels, pulp, and dried chips feed livestock across producing countries, covered in our cassava animal feed guide.
- Ethanol and biofuel industry: cassava’s high starch content makes it a viable ethanol feedstock, covered in the cassava biofuel guide.
- Pharmaceutical, paper, textile, adhesive, and bioplastic industries: cassava starch works as a binder, sizing agent, and biodegradable packaging material, covered in our industrial uses of cassava guide.
Global Demand Driving the Cassava Industry
Several forces are pushing global cassava demand higher at once: population growth in cassava-dependent regions, rising gluten-free food demand in wealthier markets, industrial starch demand from paper and textile manufacturers, renewable energy targets favoring biofuel feedstocks, and growing livestock feed needs.
China alone imported 64 percent of Thailand’s total cassava product exports by volume in recent reporting, driven largely by feed and starch demand, according to the same Krungsri industry research cited above.
Major Players in the Cassava Industry
The industry runs on a wide mix of participants. Smallholder farmers still produce most of the world’s cassava, alongside commercial farms that supply industrial processors.
Processors and food manufacturers turn those roots into flour, starch, and packaged food.
Exporters, trading companies, and government agencies handle the movement and regulation of that supply.
Research institutions such as IITA and CIAT breed improved varieties behind the scenes.
A growing number of investors, NGOs, and development partners fund the gaps that government support regularly leaves behind.
Country Case Studies
Nigeria: The World’s Largest Producer
Nigeria produces more cassava than any other country on earth, accounting for roughly a fifth of global output.
That scale comes almost entirely from smallholder farms rather than industrial operations, which is where the country’s real weakness shows.
Low yields, limited mechanization, weak industrial processing capacity, and high post-harvest losses keep enormous production from translating into export earnings.
Government policy has not helped close that gap.
The cassava bread inclusion policy began under President Obasanjo in 2002, mandating five percent cassava flour in bread.
It was abandoned in 2007, revived under President Jonathan in 2012 with targets as high as forty percent, then quietly shelved again under President Buhari, according to reporting from Businessday Nigeria.
Industry estimates suggest Nigeria loses roughly N400 billion annually in avoidable wheat import costs as a direct result, per reporting from Punch.
I farm in Ntigha, Abia State, and this is not an abstract statistic to me.
No administration has sustained support long enough for processors like the ones in my own community to build reliable industrial-grade capacity.
The opportunity is real. Nigeria simply has not organized itself to capture it yet.
Thailand: Global Export Leader
Thailand is not where cassava originated, yet it built the world’s most organized cassava industry.
The Thai Tapioca Starch Association, founded in 1976 with 36 member businesses, grew into a body coordinating pricing, export standards, and research investment across the entire sector, according to a peer-reviewed study on Thai cassava trade published on PMC.
Despite producing less than half of Nigeria’s raw tonnage, Thailand supplies the majority of the world’s cassava exports, with native starch, modified starch, and chips reaching over 100 countries.
Consistent government export policy, sustained investment in disease-resistant varieties, and a highly developed processing industry explain the gap.
Other countries, including Nigeria, could learn from how deliberately Thailand connected farms to processors to export markets, and kept that connection intact across changes in government.
Vietnam: From Small Producer to Processing Powerhouse
Vietnam turned a comparatively small production base, just 3.1 percent of global output, into the world’s second-largest cassava starch and chip export industry, generating more than a billion dollars a year in export earnings, according to CIAT and the Alliance of Bioversity International.
That success came through decades of partnership with international breeding programs, modern processing factories, and close coordination between farmers and exporters.
That same industry now faces a genuine threat from cassava mosaic disease, which has cut root yield by 16 to 33 percent and starch content by 22 to 38 percent in affected fields, based on peer-reviewed research on the outbreak.
Vietnam’s case shows that industrial success is not permanent without continued investment in disease resistance.
Brazil: Cassava as Food and Industry
Brazil sits at the intersection of deep traditional consumption, garri’s cousin farinha, tapioca crepes, and pão de queijo, and a genuinely industrial starch sector supplying food, paper, and textile manufacturers domestically.
Unlike Thailand or Vietnam, Brazil’s cassava industry is shaped far more by its own enormous domestic market than by any single export channel.
Brazil’s National Cassava and Fruit Research Center in Bahia holds the world’s largest national collection of cassava germplasm, reflecting decades of research investment even where export volumes stay modest.
Indonesia: Food Security and Industrial Use Combined
Indonesia’s cassava industry serves two purposes at once: food security for a large domestic population and a genuine starch processing sector supplying Southeast Asian markets.
Indonesia also stepped in as a secondary supplier during Thailand’s recent production shortfalls, with imports from Thailand into Indonesia surging over 260 percent in one recent year.
According to the same Krungsri industry research cited earlier, a sign of how tightly linked Southeast Asia’s cassava industries have become.
Ghana: Building Toward Industrialization
Ghana produces roughly 8 percent of the world’s cassava, mostly for domestic consumption.
It has invested specifically in industrialization through programs such as the Roots and Tubers Improvement Project.
Government-backed processing initiatives aim to move Ghana from a production-heavy, export-light position toward the kind of processing capacity Thailand built decades earlier.
The country remains earlier in that transition than its raw production numbers might suggest.
Democratic Republic of Congo: Scale Without Infrastructure
The DRC is the world’s second-largest cassava producer by volume.
Infrastructure limitations, market access problems, and disease pressure from cassava mosaic disease and cassava brown streak disease keep much of that production trapped near subsistence level.
Cassava plays an outsized role in food security here. Industrial processing capacity remains limited compared to the country’s raw scale, a pattern that echoes Nigeria’s gap between production and industrialization, just without Nigeria’s comparatively larger processing base.
India: A Smaller but Distinct Industry
India’s cassava industry centers heavily on the sago starch sector concentrated around Salem in Tamil Nadu, alongside regional food consumption in the country’s south.
Production volumes are far smaller than Africa’s or Southeast Asia’s leading producers.
The sago starch industry supplies both domestic food use, particularly sabudana, and industrial starch applications.
This gives India a narrower but genuinely established processing niche.
China: The Demand Side of the Industry
China grows some cassava domestically, mainly in southern provinces such as Guangxi, but its real role in the global cassava industry is as the largest single import market.
China accounted for 64 percent of Thailand’s total cassava product export volume by recent measures, driven by demand for starch, ethanol feedstock, and animal feed, according to Krungsri industry research.
Shifts in Chinese demand, including a recent pullback tied to a new domestic ethanol facility, ripple through cassava-exporting economies almost immediately.
That makes China’s industrial policy a genuine variable for every exporting country on this list.
Comparing Cassava Industries Around the World
| Country | Production | Processing | Exports | Domestic Consumption | Industrial Development |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | Highest in the world | Mostly small-scale | Low relative to output | Very high | Early stage |
| DR Congo | Second highest | Limited | Minimal | Very high | Early stage |
| Thailand | Mid-tier | Highly developed | Highest in the world | Moderate | Advanced |
| Ghana | Sizable | Growing | Low | High | Developing |
| Vietnam | Modest | Highly developed | High value per tonne | Moderate | Advanced |
| Brazil | Sizable | Developed, domestic-focused | Modest | High | Developed |
| Indonesia | Sizable | Developed | Moderate | High | Developing to advanced |
| India | Modest | Niche (sago) | Minimal | Moderate | Niche-developed |
| China | Minor domestic production | N/A, import-driven | N/A | High via imports | Import and processing hub |
Why Some Countries Export while Others Import
The pattern above is not about how much cassava a country grows.
It is about how much processing infrastructure, trade policy consistency, and industry coordination sit on top of that production.
Thailand and Vietnam prove that a country producing a fraction of Nigeria’s volume can out-earn it many times over once processing and export logistics are in place.
Government Policies Shaping the Cassava Industry
Policy shapes this industry more than any single agronomic factor.
Agricultural input support, industrial backward-integration policies, export incentives, import regulations on competing starches, research funding, and credit access all determine if raw production becomes real industrial value.
Thailand and Vietnam show what sustained policy can build.
Nigeria’s cassava bread policy, reversed across four administrations, shows what inconsistency costs.
Our cassava entrepreneurship guide covers what farmers and small processors can do in the meantime, with or without that support.
Investment Opportunities in the Cassava Industry
Real investment gaps exist across farming inputs, processing plants, starch and flour production lines, animal feed manufacturing, bioethanol facilities, export logistics, equipment manufacturing, and packaging.
Our cassava entrepreneurship and cassava processing equipment guides cover practical entry points at the farm and small-processor level, the scale most readers of this site actually operate at.
Technology Transforming the Cassava Industry
Precision agriculture, improved disease-resistant varieties, mechanized harvesting, and processing automation are reshaping cassava industries in countries with the capital to invest in them.
Thailand’s variety development programs are the clearest example on this page.
Digital tools such as supply chain traceability and disease monitoring are expanding more slowly in Africa, where the infrastructure gap described throughout this page limits adoption regardless of the technology’s availability.
Research and Innovation
International research centers, particularly IITA in Nigeria and CIAT in Colombia, drive most of the industry’s variety development work, from disease resistance to biofortification.
Thailand’s cassava breeding program, built through decades of collaboration with CIAT, stands as one of the field’s clearest success stories.
Peer-reviewed research credits the program with lifting national yields well above regional averages.
Trade in the Global Cassava Industry
Thailand supplies most of the world’s cassava exports, with China as its dominant buyer.
Total global trade in cassava products runs into the tens of millions of tonnes annually, split mainly between starch, chips, pellets, and flour.
Our cassava market guide covers exporters, importers, and trade flow data in full detail.
Sustainability in the Cassava Industry
Cassava’s drought tolerance and ability to grow on marginal land make it a genuine climate-resilient crop, but the industry built around it is not automatically sustainable.
Processing waste, water use in starch extraction, and land conversion all carry real environmental costs.
Our cassava waste utilization covers how the industry is turning former processing waste into animal feed and bioenergy inputs, one of the sector’s more genuine circular-economy stories.
Environmental Impact
Cassava processing generates wastewater with real disposal challenges, particularly at industrial scale, alongside land use and biodiversity concerns tied to how quickly cultivation area expands in producing regions.
Countries with stronger processing infrastructure, Thailand again being the clearest example, have generally invested more in wastewater management and byproduct reuse than countries where processing remains largely informal.
Financing the Cassava Industry
Government funding, commercial bank lending, development finance institutions, and a growing number of impact investors all play a role in financing cassava’s industrial side.
Access remains the real bottleneck for smallholder farmers and small processors, the group our cassava entrepreneurship guide is written for directly.
Challenges Facing the Global Cassava Industry
Climate change and cassava mosaic disease sit near the top of the list, alongside other viral threats.
Low yields relative to potential, poor rural infrastructure, price volatility, and weak processing capacity add to the strain.
Limited financing access, inconsistent quality standards, and export barriers round out the industry’s biggest constraints.
Emerging Opportunities
Functional foods, gluten-free product lines, biodegradable packaging, carbon markets, and renewable chemical feedstocks all represent growth paths for cassava beyond its traditional role as a staple food.
The same starch that makes garri and fufu possible is increasingly used in biodegradable packaging and industrial adhesives, as covered in our industrial applications of cassava.
Future of the Cassava Industry
Global market projections point toward continued, if modest, growth through the early 2030s, driven by gluten-free demand, industrial starch applications, and renewable energy policy.
The bigger question is not if demand grows.
It is as if countries like Nigeria, sitting on the world’s largest raw supply, have never built the policy consistency that Thailand and Vietnam already have.
Conclusion
The cassava industry is bigger than any single farm, recipe, or processing line on this site, and bigger than the value chain that moves one root from field to table.
Thailand and Vietnam prove that consistent policy and real processing investment turn modest production into serious export earnings.
Nigeria and the DR Congo prove that raw scale alone does not.
My own farming community sits inside that second story every season.
This page exists so the next person researching this industry sees the whole picture, not just the part that made it into a market report.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which country has the largest cassava industry?
Nigeria produces more cassava than any other country, roughly a fifth of global output, though its industry remains far less processed and export-oriented than Thailand’s smaller but more industrialized sector.
Which country exports the most cassava products?
Thailand exports more cassava products than any other country, supplying the majority of global trade in starch, chips, and pellets, despite producing under half of Nigeria’s total volume.
Why is Thailand a cassava export leader?
Thailand built a coordinated industry through the Thai Tapioca Starch Association, founded in 1976, combined with sustained government export policy and decades of investment in disease-resistant varieties.
Why does Nigeria produce more cassava but export less?
Nigeria’s cassava bread policy was introduced and abandoned across four administrations since 2002, leaving processors without the consistent government backing needed to build reliable industrial-grade processing capacity.
Which countries import the most cassava?
China imports the largest volume of cassava products globally, accounting for the majority of Thailand’s export volume alone, driven by demand for starch, ethanol feedstock, and animal feed.
What industries use cassava?
Cassava feeds the food, animal feed, ethanol and biofuel, pharmaceutical, paper, textile, adhesive, and bioplastics industries, with starch serving as the common raw material across most of them.
Is the global cassava industry growing?
Yes, the global cassava market was valued at roughly 47 billion dollars in 2024, with steady growth projected through the early 2030s, driven by gluten-free and industrial starch demand.
Which cassava products have the highest commercial value?
Modified starch and native starch carry the highest commercial value among cassava exports, since both feed higher-value food, pharmaceutical, and industrial manufacturing rather than raw commodity feed markets.
What are the biggest challenges facing the cassava industry?
Disease pressure, weak processing infrastructure, inconsistent government policy, and limited farmer financing remain the industry’s biggest constraints, particularly in high-production, low-industrialization countries like Nigeria and the DR Congo.
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 419, 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.