Cassava Flour
pp. 32-34 · Read in the full issue
Mill Now Operating in New Guinea
A PRACTICAL step to utilise the cas sava plant as a foodstuff for natives has been taken in New Guinea by W. R. Carpenter and Co. Ltd. A mill has been erected at Toboi, outside Rabaul, and now is turning out a good quality cassava flour which, mixed with wheatmeal flour ground locally, is used for making bread and other foods for native labourers.
Cassava (known in South America as manioc and in Australia as tapioca) grows prolifically in the tropics, as a large tuberous root. In the WRC plant,
the cassava roots are sliced by specially designed cutters, then placed on drying trays in a hot-air drier containing 40 beds. When thoroughly dry, the sliced roots are known, in New Guinea, as “gaplek” and are put through the elec trically-operated mill which grinds them into flour of a fine texture.
Already Carpenters have some 60 acres of cassava under cultivation, planted between rows of coconut palms.
Supplies of gaplek are also being pur chased from the natives, at the same price per pound as hot-air dried copra.
Cassava Industry In Brazil
IN view of the interest shown by Islands planters generally in articles dealing with cassava in the “PIM”, we publish the following information extracted from an official Brazil publica tion, just issued: — THE manioc (cassava) is one of the many plants indigenous to America.
Its early history in Brazil is clouded with uncertainty and does not permit a statement other than to say that it existed here prior to 1500. One writer states that when the Portuguese first landed in Brazil, the Guarani and Tupi namba Indians were cultivating it.
Uses of manioc are numerous. In some sections of Brazil, it is called “Brazilian bread”. As a food, it is consumed in various forms, cooked, baked, or manu factured into pure or mixed flours.
Manioc powder (or “fuba”) is utilised in the making of biscuits, buns, porridge, purees, sweets and other similar foods.
The fermented manioc serves as a base for a special type of ale more commonly found among the Indians.
Lately, the Government has made it compulsory to mix 8 per cent, of manioc flour with other flours in the manufac ture of mixed breads and baked goods in order to alleviate to some extent the heavy adverse balance created by imports of wheat and wheat-flour. In 1939, Brazil produced 33,336 metric tons of manioc for mixture with other types of flour.
The leaves of the plant, as well as the stalks and root, are used as forage for livestock.
In order to prepare the manioc tuber for industrial purposes, it is peeled and is dried either in the sun or in ovens.
The flour yield is equivalent to about one-fourth of the weight of the root.
The majority of the starch extracted from manioc is used in the laundry or bleaching industries.
It is also used to a certain extent in the manufacture of dextrin, glucose, syrup, acetone, etc. There recently has been developed a new field of utilisation for manioc—power alcohol. A modern distillery has been erected at Divinopolis (State of Minas Gerais) and the output in 1939 amounted to 2,400,000 litres of substitute fuel.
NOT only the cultivated, but also the wild manioc is grown on a large scale in Brazil. The root of the former may be consumed, baked or cooked, but the latter can be used only after the toxic portion has been elimin ated.
Manioc is planted in Brazil in two sea sons, depending upon the region. In the south, the sowing is done from August to December and in the north, from January to May; in either case this is done during the rainy season. The cul tivated manioc, called “aipim” or “maca xeira”, is harvested after the eighth month, while the root is still tender and tasty. However, manioc destined for industrial purposes, whether cultivated or
wild, is allowed to pass through two cycles of growth before harvesting—that is to say, about 20 months —because this prolongation doubles the industrial yield.
The best soil for the cultivation of manioc is either siliceous or siliceous clay. When planted about a metre apart, a hectare contains some 10,000 plants. Each plant yields a minimum of four kilograms, equivalent to 40 metric tons per hectare. On virgin soil, the yield at times exceeds 100 metric tons per hectare. No other tuber returns greater amounts of bodily substance than does manioc, nor does any other furnish so much food by weight per unit of land.
The manioc flour industry is well organised in Brazil to-day; the annual output in recent years has been averag ing about one million metric tons. It is either manufactured in small ovens on the grower’s property or in large mills. The production is thus limited in the case of the former and is usually only sufficient to meet home needs; whatever surplus may be created is sold in neighbouring districts. Flour milled in the large industrial units is much better in quality, entirely free from impurities and, therefore, more widely demanded.
In 1939, Brazil produced 1,080,410 tons of manioc flour, compared with 952,800 in 1938; 931,342 in 1937; 876,277 in 1936; and 1,004,265 in 1931-35.
Conditions in Brazil are extremely favourable for the installation of mills on manioc plantations, thus advantage ously affecting the development of the industry. A plant requires but a small operating force —usually 6 or 7 persons are capable of producing 5 metric tons of flour daily. The deterring factors to Brazil’s progress in the modernisation and industrialisation of this commodity are scarcity of capital and the relatively high cost of mechanical equipment. An adjustment to this difficultv is found in the tendency among small growers to form co-operatives to acquire equipment, etc. fTIHE leading producer of manioc in the X world is the Dutch East Indies, whose output in 1937 amounted to 7,637,400 metric tons. Brazil was second with a production of 5,355,000 metric tons. The following tables show the pro duction and export figures (in metric tons) of the main manioc-producing countries: —
Brazil’s average annual production of manioc roots in the five-year period 1928- 32 was 5,028,000 metric tons and in the five-year period 1933-37 increased to 5.994.571 metric tons. In 1938, output totalled 5.355,000 metric tons while in 1939, this had risen to 6,598.922 kilograms valued at 679,689 contos-de-reis (about £1.093,870 Aust.).
Brazil exports flour to Argentina.
Uraguay, Peru. Portugal, Belgium, and England. Manioc starch goes mostly to
Production
1937 1936 (Metric Tons) Dutch East Indies .. . 7.637,400 7.480,800 Brazil 5 355,000 5.218,505 Madagascar 1,560,000 1,500,000 Ivory Coast — 420.000 Dahomey 300,000 300,000 Argentina (19331 — 294,700 Senegal 139,400 107,800 French Sudan 107,800 104,500 Peru (1929) — 139,400 French Guinea 100,800 80,100
Exports
1938 1937 (Metric Tons) Dutch East Indies .. . 267,000 417,319 Madagascar 55,859 37.956 Malava 16.041 17.800 Indo-China 8 445 12,129 Brazil 5,092 3,608 Dominica* 1,715 2,394 ♦Imported by United States of America.
USA and Britain. In recent years, manioc flour has shown a distinct trend to a lower price per unit in terms of gold— the average price for 1938 was £3/10/stg., for 1940 it was £2/1/- stg.
Miss I. Littler, of the Papuan Treasury Dept., has been in Australia on leave.