Cassava: Trading

How African breweries are turning cassava into a cash crop

What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.

Cassava has no futures market. Thai trade associations publish reference prices for chips and starch, the closest thing to a world benchmark, and Chinese importers buy under physical contracts. African cassava moves through informal markets and, increasingly, contracts with breweries and starch processors that use it in place of imported barley or maize. Grain traders spotted the crop early. Morgan describes Cargill building a tapioca terminal in Thailand when Europe let tapioca in free of the duties it charged on maize.

Where it is bought (buyers)

Chinese ethanol plants, distilleries and feed mills buy dried chips (40.7% of world HS 071410 import value in 2024)
Thai and Vietnamese starch mills buy roots and chips from Cambodia and Laos (Thailand 39.8% of import value)
US food importers buy frozen and fresh cassava (8.8%) (UN Comtrade 2024)

Where it is sold (sellers)

Cambodia (48.4% of export value) and Thailand (34.7%) sell roots and chips; Costa Rica (10.3%) sells fresh roots to the US (UN Comtrade 2024)
Thai and Vietnamese mills sell starch across Asia
Indian sago units sell through SAGOSERVE and traders across India

Exchanges and benchmarks

Venue	Contract	Notes
None	no cassava futures	prices are set in physical markets
SAGOSERVE, Salem	cooperative marketing of sago and starch for member units	main Indian price reference

Contract types

FOB Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City contracts for chips and starch
Cross-border spot purchases of roots and chips
Factory gate prices for roots based on starch content

Top trading houses

Thai and Chinese chip exporters and importers; no global merchant dominates

How prices are discovered

Thai Tapioca Trade Association price quotes
UN Comtrade unit values
Salem market and SAGOSERVE prices