Cassava: Characteristics
Starch pays, cyanide kills: what buyers test for
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | 341.9 Mt of fresh roots (2024) | Output more than doubled from 152 Mt in 1990. Africa grows most of it for food; Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam grow it for starch and chips. India grew 6.28 Mt at a world-leading 35.6 t/ha. | FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Inventory and stock levels | no official stocks; roots stored in the ground | Fresh roots rot within 2-3 days of harvest, so farmers leave them in the soil until needed. Traders in Thailand and China hold dried chips and starch. Thailand has at times run government stockholding of chips and starch. No series is published. | content of this tile |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | Thai starch factories run in the main harvest from about November to April and slow in the rainy season. Salem's sago and starch units in Tamil Nadu are also seasonal. No utilisation series is published for either. | content of this tile (qualitative) |
| Geographic and producer concentration | Nigeria 18.3%, top-3 (Nigeria, DR Congo, Thailand) 40.3%, HHI 797 (2024) | Trade is far more concentrated: Cambodia (48.4%) and Thailand (34.7%) supply over 80% of root and chip exports by value, and China (40.7%) and Thailand (39.8%) import 80%. | FAOSTAT 2024; UN Comtrade 2024 |
| Supply elasticity | moderate: 8-18 month crop, planted from stem cuttings | Farmers can extend or delay harvest, which gives some short-run flexibility. Area in Thailand and Cambodia shifts with chip and starch prices and with Chinese ethanol demand. African food supply responds slowly because yields are low (5.8 t/ha in Nigeria). | FAOSTAT 2024; content of this tile |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no large capacity projects tracked | Growth comes from yields and from starch plants in Southeast Asia. Disease, especially cassava mosaic disease spreading in Southeast Asia, is the main risk to that growth. | content of this tile |
| Logistics and export flows | a small share traded as roots: exports of roots and chips worth $1.43 bn (2024) | Thailand imports 4.52 Mt of roots and chips mainly from Cambodia and Laos by truck and re-exports chips and starch through Bangkok and Laem Chabang to China. Fresh roots cannot travel far, so starch and chip plants must sit close to farms. | UN Comtrade 2024 |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Cassava is sold as fresh roots, dried chips, flour or starch. Starch content of the root sets factory payment. For chips and flour, moisture and cyanide content matter, because roots contain cyanogenic glucosides that must be removed by processing. Native starch is sold on whiteness, moisture, ash and viscosity.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Root starch content | about 25-35% of fresh weight; Salem roots 30-35% | Thai and Indian factories pay by starch percentage | InsightsIAS 2026; trade practice |
| Root moisture | about 60-70% water | Makes roots bulky and perishable, limiting haul distance | agronomy literature (indicative) |
| Cyanogenic potential (HCN) | Codex: edible cassava flour at most 10 mg/kg total HCN; sweet cassava below 50 mg/kg | Food safety limit; bitter varieties need soaking, fermenting or drying | Codex CXS 176-1989 and CXS 238-2003 |
| Flour and chip moisture | flour at most 13%; chips about 14% max | Higher moisture brings mould and weight loss in storage | Codex CXS 176-1989; Thai trade specs (indicative) |
| Native starch quality | moisture about 13% max, ash about 0.2% max, high whiteness, pH about 5-7 | Food, paper and textile buyers need consistent paste viscosity and colour | Thai Industrial Standard for tapioca starch (indicative) |
| Sago yield | about 5 kg of roots per kg of sago | Sets processor margins in Salem | InsightsIAS, Feb 2026 |