Honeywell sceptical over high quality cassava flour availability

As the Federal Government’s December 2014 deadline, which mandates 5 percent cassava inclusion in wheat flour used by flour milling firms approaches, Honeywell Flour Mills plc has expressed doubts over availability of high quality cassava flour.

“We face the challenge of high quality cassava flour availability. The truth today is that we have doubt as to the ability of our partners (cassava processors) to meet up with the supply of high quality cassava. We are already seeing these signs because we see defunct in delivery on orders,’’ said Lanre Jaiyeola, managing director/CEO of the firm.

The policy of cassava inclusion in wheat flour was introduced to encourage small-holder farmers by way of increasing their productivity and income. It was also geared towards increasing market for them, while creating jobs in the economy.

Honeywell is one of the four major flour milling firms in the country. Others include Flour Mills of Nigeria, Dangote Flour Mills and Northern Nigeria Flour Mills.

The firm recently unveiled plans to invest N10 billion in the company’s new agro-allied industrial complex sited on a 62.8 hectare of land around Sagamu inter-change in Ogun State. This is geared towards improving production capacity. The project is a cluster for production and processing of general food and agro-allied products with much emphasis placed on manufacturing value-added human and animal food products leveraging backward integration for raw material procurement, according to Jaiyeola.