Consumers Mistake a Superfood for Gypsum Nearly Missed a Fortune

Consumers Mistake a Superfood for Gypsum Nearly Missed a Fortune

Jun 27 , 2026. By Mekonnen Solomon ( Mekonnen Solomon (ehdaplan@gmail.com) is a horticulture export coordinator and senior staff of the Ministry of Agriculture. )

Raw cassava naturally contains cyanogenic compounds that pose human health risks if left untreated. This biological characteristic often fuels public anxiety when the crop is introduced to new consumer groups. Food scientists and agricultural engineers note that rigorous processing protocols can completely neutralise these natural chemical threats, transforming the raw root into a universally safe ingredient. Corporate safety protocols enforce systematic washing, peeling, and controlled mechanical drying to bring the root to a precise target moisture level of 10pc to 11pc. These measures ensure the product strictly complies with Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) standards.

In the dynamic agricultural landscape across the country, I came across a story that links a public perception problem to a large economic opportunity.

In Addis Abeba, a persistent rumour that "injera" was being adulterated with "jesso," the colloquial term for the gypsum used in construction, caught my attention. It spread real anxiety. Friends and acquaintances told me they had stopped eating at the small and budget-friendly places that anchor so much of city life. Social media sharpened the fear with dark jokes that diners might "stick to the walls" after a meal, as if the gypsum's binding power carried past the plate.

The damage was serious and avoidable. Many small restaurant owners and poor bakers, working with little to spare, lost income as confidence drained away. In some cases, the city Code Enforcement Authority ordered closures and detentions without the benefit of thorough physical and laboratory analysis or due process.

Later investigation settled the matter. The white substance was not gypsum but cassava, a nutritious root crop, a dense, gluten-free source of complex carbohydrates. It is a source of steady energy, carrying immune-boosting vitamin C, copper and dietary fibre that aid digestion and long-lasting fullness. This episode is rather a lesson in agricultural illiteracy. Cassava, unfamiliar to consumers raised on cereals such as "teff," became a symbol of fear rather than what it is, a potential superfood rich in carbohydrates, fibre and micronutrients.

That same crop, handled well, could reshape the export story. The country's flowers, fruits and vegetables have reached an annual value of about half a billion dollars over the past 25 years, a solid base built on sustained investment and market development. Yet study after study revealed that the cassava sector is ripe for far faster growth.

I had the opportunity to assess the scalability of cassava cultivation on some farms. In discussions with a senior manager at Aleta Land Coffee Plc, one of the country's prominent cassava farms, I gained a close view of the Company's strategic plan and its pilot operation. The initiative could generate up to half a billion dollars in value-added revenue from cassava-derived products over a five-year implementation period. The plan is to begin with about 170,000tn of cassava chips in the first year and expand to one million tonnes of chips, flour, and starch five years later.

For the Company, this path uses Ethiopia's late-mover advantage to skip the fragmented subsistence farming common across much of West Africa. It signals a shift that could double the value of the country's horticultural export portfolio and make it a serious player in global agro-processing.

The continental context supports the case. Nigeria leads the world in cassava output, with over 60 million tonnes a year, while Ghana reaches between 18tn and 20tn a hectare under good conditions. Both have leaned toward domestic consumption.

Ethiopia, by contrast, is positioned to pursue high-productivity and export-oriented industrialisation. Aleta Land Coffee Plc is using mechanised farming and high-starch improved varieties such as Kello and Qulle, which it projects will yield up to 60tn of fresh roots a hectare, well above the regional smallholder average of eight tonnes to 10tn and ahead of many Asian benchmarks of 20tns and 25tn. The model is engineered to direct about 85pc of output toward international markets, with a primary focus on high-demand industrial buyers in East Asia.

The Company hopes that careful land preparation and modern agronomy underpin the plan, raising both productivity and sustainability and securing a steady supply to its processing facilities.

Logistics is the pressure point. Freight costs run 103 to 105 dollars a tonne, which squeezes margins against established rivals such as Thailand and Vietnam. To ease that, the project plans to use the Lamu Port corridor in Kenya to speed transit, cut costs and shore up competitiveness. The infrastructure is essential to turn Ethiopia's geography into real market access. Given the country's need for foreign currency, the Ministry of Transport & Logistics should prioritise finishing the road to Lamu Port.

Pricing strengthens the case as the Company's Operations Manager argued that dried cassava chips currently fetch cost, insurance and freight (CIF) prices of about 243 dollars a tonne in East Asian markets. To shield farmers and industrial partners from commodity price swings, the strategy includes a guaranteed price mechanism to promote contractual stability, reward quality, and support steady rural incomes. This risk management sets the Aleta Land model apart and makes it more attractive to domestic and foreign buyers alike.

The Company met the health worries around raw cassava with science. Its protocols require thorough washing, peeling and controlled drying to a target moisture of 10pc to 11pc, steps that defuse cyanide risk. The project follows Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) standards, maintains particle size and dryness, and applies digital traceability through a "Golden Triangle" system that tracks every batch from the field to the export container. Properly processed cassava, research affirms, poses no major health hazard and meets strict global thresholds.

However, the ground-level obstacles are real. In the Daasanach pastoralist areas of South Omo, where Aleta Land Coffee Plc operates, poor roads, labour shortages, no grid power and unreliable fuel pile costs onto export-oriented producers of cassava and banana alike. The plantation draws its irrigation from the Omo River in South Omo before the river flows into Lake Turkana on the Kenyan border. Preferential operating terms and targeted incentives would be needed to keep export farming viable in such remote places.

Today, cassava exports are negligible, worth about 22,000 dollars, demonstrating how much room there is to grow. An initiative like Aleta Land's could unlock real foreign-exchange earnings and serve national development.

The social return matters too. The project expects to create over 10,000 rural jobs across cultivation, processing, logistics and support services. By drawing smallholders into contract farming and its varied value chains through input provision, technical extension and guaranteed markets, it points toward inclusive growth, resilience to climate variability and poverty reduction. Cassava's inherent drought tolerance and adaptability to varied soils further amplify its value in the lowlands.

Pairing mechanised practices with conservation-oriented techniques can improve soil health and water efficiency, and the revenue generated could fund research into bio-fortified varieties and circular applications, such as converting processing residues into bioenergy or livestock feed.

Cassava's place from a source of misplaced fear to a candidate for industrial ambition represents a maturing development strategy. Agricultural transformation and rural empowerment move together. With high-value processing, dedicated land, an optimised port corridor, stable pricing and rigorous quality control, Ethiopia can claim a strong and prominent place in the global cassava chain.

As the country looks to 2031, cassava can emerge not as a Cinderella crop of the lowlands but as a dynamic engine of economic transformation. Realising that will take government, private investors, research institutions, and development partners working together, with coherent policy, sustained infrastructure, and human capital investment. The shift from rumour-driven fear to evidence-based opportunity is instructive.

PUBLISHED ON Jun 27,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1365]