From Field To Table Flour Milling
Abodunde Farms is a:
Grower
We are committed to the preservation of our natural resources, the well being of our family of smallholders, the selection of specialty varieties of a wide range of crops and the nourishment of our community.
Processor
We produce garri flour from cassava tubers using ancient fermentation and roasting techniques. Our flour milling facility operates professionally, and we use comprehensive food and safety guidelines to ensure quality.
Shipper
We strive to ensure the product being delivered to the consumer will meet the needs and quality expectations. We provide delivery services for the various raw and processed products we sell .
The Crop
Cassava was unknown to the Old World before the discovery of America. There is archaeological evidence of two major centers of origin for this crop, one in Mexico and Central America and the other in northeastern Brazil. Portuguese settlers found the native Indians in Brazil growing the cassava plant. and Pierre Martyr wrote in 1494 that the "poisonous roots" of a yucca were used in the preparation of bread.
It is believed that cassava was introduced to the western coast of Africa in about the sixteenth century by slave merchants where it quickly became an important crop. Today, Nigeria accounts for 20% of total global output.
Cassava is sometimes described as the "Bread of the Tropics". It is the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize.
The importance of cassava to Africans is epitomized in the Ewe (a language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin) name for the plant, Agbeli, meaning "There is Life”.
17th c. painting, cassava plant and tubers by Albert Eckhout in Dutch Brazil
The harvesting of manioc or cassava root, ou histoire phisico-economique des vegetaux de la Torride, 1789
Our Flour
Cassava flour comes in several varieties depending on how it is made. At Abodunde Farms we process cassava into garri flour, a form of cassava flour that is 100% natural, no chemical additives. We employ ancient processing techniques which yield the unique yellow "sour" tasting gari flour that is prized all over West Africa.
A large majority of customers in the tropics look for naturally occurring raw ingredients in their food that are processed without modifying the native chemical structure of any of the produce. In the old world regions of this planet, the term "natural" is very defined and covers a scope of genuinely natural occurring and processed products within the food manufacturing industry.
Preparing Cassava flour in Central America, 1909.
Natural Garri Flour
We grow the best cassava varieties which are disease and pest resistant, low in cyanide content, drought resistant, early maturing, and high yielding.
We process cassava tubers into the best tasting natural garri flour using ancient fermentation and roasting techniques.
We deliver to the Nigerian marketplace year-round.
As stewards of some of the most fertile land in West Africa, handed down over thousands of years, we are steadfast in our commitment to supporting our fellow Garri flour producers in Akoko Edo, Edo State, Nigeria in retaining our reputation as the "Garri Capital of West Africa".