HOW TO START A PROFITABLE GARRI BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Recent estimate put the annual demand of Garri at about (1,000,000) tons while the total supply capacity of producers is around 250,000 tons meaning we have a deficiency of about 750,000 tons.

Now, comparing the above estimate to the steady population growth; it just proofed that that there is no way the demand can be satisfied in years to come. The above lead us to the topic: how to start a profitable Garri business in Nigeria.

It’s debatable that Nigeria still remains one of the best markets for any staple food without the exception of Garri.

Garri is a food that cut across all socio-cultural spheres; meaning this food can be found both in the home of the rich likewise the poor.

The acceptability of garri makes it a good business to venture into without fear of any kind of loss if you understand your market properly.

In this article I will briefly be writing about how to start a profitable garri business in Nigeria. Ensure you read to the end in order to get the full information needed to get you started asap.

Factors to Consider Before Going into a Garri Business

• Which of the value chain to leverage on: garri value chain is quite a large one and as a starter it is safer as well as advisable to pick or start one instead of trying to venture into everything at once.

Some of the garri value chain includes: growing cassava or sourcing cassava for users, garri production in itself, garri dealership (wholesaler), retailer and transporter.

In this article our focus is on garri distribution or dealership and this is either as a wholesaler or a retailer. As a starter, starting as a distributor helps you understand the business better. Here you will have the opportunity to understudy the producers and the consumers, understand their challenges and also know how to mitigate against them.

• Already market: it’s safer for you to have a market before you venture into the business. This will prevent your cash from been held down for long.

Cash is held down for too long slow down the growth of business. So for your garri distribution to find its foot easily then you must never start without getting ready buyers on ground.

• Where to source your product: since you will not be producing the garri yourself then it’s good to ensure that the location you intend to source from produce quality garri for distribution.

Secondly, you have to ensure that their production is consistent. The two mentioned point above is very important if you intend for your garri distribution to be sustainable.

If they don’t produce steadily then you need to get another or other producers to supplement their production so that your supply can be steady without hindrances.

The second point I made above is about the quality of the garri; if the quality is poor this will no doubt affect your garri business. Before buying from any producer I will advise you have a taste of what you are buying.

You can even go as far as taking samples to your customers for them to pick the best or their choice.  

• Logistics: this is one of the most challenging parts of the whole process. Most times as a garri dealer you might have located a good place to source your garri but the challenge you face is getting a vehicle that will move the product from where they are to where you need them to be.

In your planning processes you should ensure that you consider or place logistic as a high priority for you to have hitch free transportation process.

• The kind of garri you intend to deal in: there are different kinds of garri now in the market. We have the white garri and the yellow. Even the white garri garri still have types; we have the ijebu garri and others.

For the yellow garri we have the one they apply oil palm during production in order for them to attain the colour while there are some other that are naturally yellow: vitamin A cassava.

Starting a profitable Garri business in Nigeria is a reality if only you can do the needful. Many people who are into this business are hitting big because the demand is inexhaustible and can never be inasmuch as people are eating.

I really want to appreciate the time you invested in going through this article, and I will be glad if you can help share the post on all your social media so that more people can have access it. Thank you