Potato flour creates alternative for Nigerian bakers amid soaring wheat prices

BY Onome Amuge.

With the global price of wheat rising to multi-year highs as a result of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war which disrupted global supply of wheat from the world’s top exporting regions, sweet potato flour or puree presents a substitute to wheat flour in baking and confectioneries, according to research findings.

Potato is the third most important food crop in the world, after wheat and rice, in terms of human consumption, according to the International Potato Center (CIP), an international research facility headquartered in Lima, Peru. It has a global total crop production surpassing 350 million metric tonnes, produced in over 100 countries worldwide and consumed by over one billion people globally.

The starchy tuberous crop is also considered one of the world’s largest growing crops as it produces more food per unit of water than any other major crop and up to seven times more efficient in using water than cereals.

There are two main types of potato – Irish potato and sweet potato. Both are renowned for the highly nutritious value they contain, which includes Vitamin C, Potassium, iron, Vitamin B6, fibre, low cholesterol, fat and sodium.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) ranks Nigeria as the seventh largest irish potato producer in Africa behind Algeria, Egypt, Malawi, South Africa, Rwanda and Kenya. The country is also renowned as the third largest producer of the sweet potato variety in the world after China and Malawi, with an annual production estimated at 4 million metric tonnes per year.

Asides being drought-tolerant and adaptable to a wide range of the ecology, sweet potato has a short maturity period of three to five months which makes it suitable for multiple cropping that makes for continuous food availability and accessibility.

The sweet-tasting root crop is also considered by nutritionists as a remedial food against Vitamin A deficiency. It can be cultivated in most parts of Nigeria, but grows more abundantly in Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Zamfara, and Sokoto, the leading producing states in the country.

Statista, a leading provider of global market and consumer data, noted that the global sweet potato market was valued at $42.75 billion and was forecast to reach $45.7 billion by 2025, leading to calls for Nigeria to improve its production capacity to strengthen its competitiveness in the global market.

Nutritionists say sweet potato flour or puree possesses a high potential for success as a substitute to wheat flour in baking and confectioneries.

According to nutritionists, sweet potato flour is highly resourceful, excellent in holding moisture in baked goods, possesses natural sweetness, colour and flavour, making it an excellent raw material in the production of baked goods, such as bread, biscuits, cake, doughnuts, and other processed food products.

Based on research evidence, the Nigerian bakery sector consumes an average of 331,460kg of flour per month, largely made from wheat, and to a lesser extent, substituted with cassava flour.

Amid global supply chain disruptions, Nigerian local flour millers have been forced to spend more on shipping wheat from other exporting countries. This has also been exacerbated by a multifaceted value chain crisis, shortage of foreign exchange, mounting freight charges, and hike in the price of diesel.

As a result, flour millers and bakers have come under intense cost pressure as the price of wheat continues to skyrocket in the international market, consequently raising the hardship and cost of living index of the hard-pressed local consumers who continue to bear the burden of the price surges seen in wheat derivative foods such as bread, considered a significant part of the daily diet of most Nigerian households.

The realisation that sweet potato flour is readily available in Nigeria and can be marketed as a low-cost alternative for imported wheat flour, especially for snack food producers, has ushered a necessity for bakers across the country to intensify the adoption of sweet potato puree in producing bread and other confectioneries to reduce cost and also maximise the micronutrients of the crop.

Experimental studies conducted at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) found that the utilisation of sweet potato in bread production reduces sugar usage by 5 percent, translating into a lower production cost and a higher profit margin, especially in large-scale bakeries.

Kirimi Sindi, strategic advisor at Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation, in his assessment of the potential of sweet potato in the baking industry, said sweet potato is better than wheat because it is cheaper while imported wheat is costly. He added that Nigeria and many other African countries can reduce the cost of producing confectioneries by adopting sweet potato puree as an alternative to wheat flour.

The Rwandan agricultural scientist, in a research paper titled “What is the consumers’ perception of bakery products made with Vitamin A rich sweet potato and wheat?”, noted that flour made from potato can be used to bake bread, doughnut, biscuits and cakes, reducing production cost by 15 percent.

“Manufacturers who import agricultural commodities like wheat are facing increasing costs due to rising commodity prices. Sweet potatoes can replace up to 40 percent of the wheat in bakery products. This can lower production costs, save a country’s foreign exchange, and increase the rural farmer’s income,” he said.

As the global wealth market continues to be rattled by price volatility, analysts opine that the demand for sweet potato puree/flour is likely to rise, creating the need for local producers to scale up production of the root crop to ensure sustainability and a ready market for their produce.

Despite being ranked the third largest producer of sweet potato in the world, production across many Nigerian communities has been besieged by numerous challenges along the value chain that result in relatively low yields, limited utilisation and consumption. These challenges, according to analysts, include poor agronomic practices, limited processing capacity, poor vine and root storage technologies, insecurity, poor communication among key actors along the value chain, among other concerns.

Commenting on the challenges facing potato farmers, Daniel Okafor, national president, Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria (POFAN), said the worsening insecurity in Nigeria has made it difficult for potato farmers to access their farms either for harvesting or planting.

Okafor, who stated this during the recent launch of a training handbook for farmers on sweet-potato value chain development and presentation of logical framework for 2022, noted that he lost about five hectares of potato farm to theft perpetrated by locals and rampaging herdsmen.

“Insecurity is a very big challenge which everybody knows in Nigeria today as the major cause of food scarcity. Our farmers cannot go to their farms either to plant or harvest the planted crops due to insecurity around them,” he said.

The POFAN president encouraged all the stakeholders in the potato industry and agricultural sector in general to see the need to embrace potato value chain development as a lucrative venture worth investing in.

This, he explained, is because potato is not just a food crop but can be used in different ways to serve different purposes, adding that it has different value-added components as raw materials for different manufacturing industries both for baking and many other industrial uses.

Okafor charged research institutes, agencies and development partners with mandates on the potato value chain to work assiduously in the utilisation of improved technologies and innovations in creating solutions to the numerous challenges besieging the value chain.

He also recommended the establishment of efficient distribution and supply chains.

Dahiru Yahaya, a sweet potato farmer and trader in Maraba market, Zamfara State, said access to finance has been a major challenge for him and other stakeholders in the sweet potato market.

Yahaya also said that the rising and unstable price in logistics, such as transportation, has posed a challenge for many of the farmers based in the rural areas.

He urged the government and financial institutions to support the farmers by providing access to finance through loans and provision of farming equipment and machinery at subsidised rates.

This, he noted, will help farmers and stakeholders mitigate financial constraints affecting their businesses, and also boost production.