When you walk down major supermarkets in Nigeria, you will find that out 70%-80% of the products on the food and beverages shelves are foreign. A closer look reveals that 50% of these items are food products that we have the basic raw materials in Nigerian.
The agricultural potential of Nigeria is barley tapped by us but by the foreigner and this is one of the reasons behind the influx of foreign goods (food and snacks). I am not suggesting that you become a famer; the idea here is to pick up an agric product and add value to it. The value you add will prolong the shelve life of the product. It could just be processing it into another form or adding some other raw materials to make it presentable or just packaging.
The reason for this thread is to reveal some information on agric value chain, I will take you down to where you will get some of these products at the cheapest price ever, the processing, the packaging, the machines(locally fabricated and foreign) and of course innovative marketing. Some of the information will be free while some will have a price tag.
So watch out, the first product will be sweet potatoes, I will highlight where to get it,(at the cheapest price) the process of adding value( processing and packaging ) the marketing of course machines( this however depends on you) so please keep a date . thanks
Iniobong(agric consultant)
Iniobong 4solution@gmail
07034706326

Minion:Ur Painfulness! Is farming really that good?
Hades: Of course! Especially, animal farming
Minion:What is so special about animal farming? My King!
Hades: Dont you know that with animal science alone you can rule Nigeria. What do you think GEJ studied in school?!
Minion: Really!

I believe so much in agriculture, because no matter the amount of time you spend in the office you must eat food. No matter how much you make from crude oil, we must eat. So we get the fact that agriculture value chain paid more than the normal agriculture practices. where the farmer makes N100
As entrepreneur who add value to his products will make 500% more than the farmer.

All right we are looking at potatoes, there are two common species , one that is known as the Irish potatoes and the sweet potatoes , our emphasizes here will be on sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes is planted in Benue , kogi, Mambilla Plateau in Taraba State and Biu Plateau in Borno State. Sweet potato can also be grown in about eleven Northern States, such as Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Bauchi, Katsina, Kano, Gombe, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kaduna and Kebbi under irrigation
Let take Kaduna, during the harvest season you can get a bag (70-80kg) of sweet potatoes for N3,000 depending on where you buy it.
Assuming we are adding value to potatoes by doing potatoes chips .
Potato production is an established to be profitable enterprise, for every N1.00 invested in sweet potato production, a profit of N100.00 is realizable, the main thrust is this write up is the processing of the potatoes to produce fried potato chips.

1. Fresh potatoes will keep longest when stored in a cool, dry, dark area with good ventilation. Ideally, storage areas should range between 5-10° C.

2. Wash away the dust and sand on the potatoes

3. Peel the skin of the potato( the leftover peel could be dry and used for animal feed)

4. Slice the potatoes depending on the size that will be needed, you can also use a slicing machine to
slice it. There are different types of slicing machine.

5. Adjust the sliced thickness of hand push machine Slice. The available thickness is from 1.2mm to
2.0mm

6. Wash potato chips by warm water. In order to prevent dark fried potato chip.

7. Draining the water in the potato chips in order to promote the frying quality.

8. Sprinkle seasoning flour evenly manually
9. Fry potato chips manually.

10. Drain oil off and allow to cooling and dry before packaging
11. Use a sealing machine to seal branded nylon or a packaging machine
12. Marketing
Machines needed
1. Peeler
2. Slicing machine
3. Sealing machines
4. Scale
For an SME you can start without any of this machines as you expand ,the machines can be brought .
Presently 250 g of the fried potato chips goes for N 100. They returns on investment is high, if done manually with branded nylons and sealing machine one

Just like every food products in Nigeria, the product would have to be registered with National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) to guarantee the safety of the product for human consumption.

Presently 250g of the fried potato chips goes for N 100. They returns on investment is very high.

Should you require a business plan/feasibility study on the above subject matter, please do contact the writer. You can contact the agric consultant 07034706326, iniobong4solution@gmail.com

Processing potatoes into frozen potatoes chips

Have you ever walk into an eatery and order for chip and chicken, or potatoes chip and it takes them 3 minutes for your chips to be ready . Have you ever wondered if the chips was peel , slice and fried under three minutes , hell no, the chips was delivered to them in a frozen form. All the did was to fried.
Processing of potatoes into frozen chips(French fried)is one very lucrative business that is not common in Nigeria, 95% of the potatoes frozen potatoes that are eaten across the country come in from south African , can you imagine that, when we have surplus potatoes in the country , This is a great opportunity for investment, the ROI( return on investment) is very high
Let me take you through the process of processing frozen potatoes

Sorting

Peeling

Cutting

Blanching

Freezing and packaging


Sorting
the type of potatoes to be used is the one common refer to as the Irish potatoes, it comes in different sizes , if cutting and peeling machine is will be used then we are going to need to sort out the potatoes according to their sizes . Otherwise the manual system will not need this .


Peeling
Potatoes are washed thoroughly with clean water and then peeled. The is a machines that peels potatoes. If Machine is not used then the hand peeling comes in handy.


Cutting & Sizing

You cant manage this stage without a cutting machine, you need a cutting machine to go through this particular stage. Peeled potatoes are cut into sticks, lengthwise so as to get long cuts. The cross section of the sticks ranges between 7 and 12mm and is generally 10mm. the length of the strips can be 5-7cm. Mechanical slicers or strip cutting appliances of different capacities are available for this purpose. The sticks are graded for size. Too short and thin sticks are removed, as also the discoloured ones.


Blanching
This is a very important stage if this stage is not handle well then you potatoes chips will not come out well . The sticks are balanced in water at 70-95C for several minutes to inactivate the enzyme. The procedure also results in removal of some of the sugars from the surface of sticks, resulting in uniformity of fry colour.

Freezing & Packing

The final step is freezing of the chip. This can be done with a deep freezer,cooled down to about -40C. This prevents them sticking together and helps protect the flavour. After the processing is done, the French Fries are bagged and shipped out to their final destinations (distributors, restaurants, supermarkets)

Presently 500g of frozen potato chips goes for N1200. They returns on investment is very high.
Machines needed
1. Peeler
2. Slicing machine
3. Sealing machines
4. Scale
5. Deep freezer
Should you require a business plan/feasibility study on the above subject matter, please do contact the writer. You can contact the agric consultant 07034706326, iniobong4solution@gmail.com

Have you ever taste potatoes flour, it is a very good substitute for semovita, yam flour, wheat and garri, so keep a date with as i unmyth the process

thanks

My broda i need this info like die. I had 2 google dis topic to locate you. EXpect my email soon