Cassava and Root Crops: The Overlooked Food and Feed Industry

Cassava can leave a farm as a food root, a load bound for a starch processor or material destined for dried feed chips. Sweet potato can be sold fresh or become a packaged snack or flour. Ube moves through a different set of cultivar, color and processing requirements. These crops are often grouped together in conversation, but the buyer, product specification and distance to processing determine whether a particular harvest has commercial value.

The scale is substantial. PSA’s preliminary April–June 2026 statistics recorded 738.69 thousand tonnes of cassava, 127.97 thousand tonnes of sweet potato and 14.09 thousand tonnes of potato. Cassava output increased 11.4% from the corresponding 2025 quarter; sweet potato fell 2.7% and potato fell 2.4%. These are fresh crop quantities. They do not represent equivalent amounts of dried starch, flour or animal feed. Source 1

The geography differs by crop

Northern Mindanao’s separate annual release put fresh cassava production at 613,014.8 tonnes in 2025, compared with 633,397.6 tonnes in 2024, a reported decline of 3.2%. Cassava made up 84.8% of the region’s selected major vegetables and root crops. That share describes the specific statistical group, not all agriculture in the region. It nevertheless shows why the crop deserves attention as an organized production business. Source 2

Concentration changes the economics of processing. A processor needs enough suitable material within an affordable collection radius, delivered across its operating schedule. A large national harvest is less useful to a particular plant if it is scattered, harvested at incompatible times or expensive to transport. For a grower, the presence of a dependable nearby buyer can matter more than a distant national price headline. Production geography and processing geography have to fit together.

Fresh roots, flour and starch are different products

The BAFS cassava code distinguishes grates, chips, granules, flour and starch, with separate processing routes for food and industrial destinations. Starch involves wet extraction; flour is a different processed product. The commercial specification therefore starts with what the buyer intends to manufacture. A root that can enter one processing chain should not automatically be treated as interchangeable with the ingredient required by another. Source 5

A DA Region XII account in January 2025 described cassava in Polomolok, South Cotabato, being granulated and dried for feed manufacturing as a substitute for corn. This is a concrete example of the crop’s industrial route. It does not imply that roots can replace complete feed, or that every variety and processed lot can be substituted at the same rate. Source 7

For a processor, fresh-weight yield is only one side of the calculation. Saleable output also depends on dry matter, processing recovery, rejected material and losses. Water removal reduces the mass to be transported later, but drying itself uses space, labor, time or energy. The relevant unit cost is total cost divided by the usable ingredient produced, rather than fresh-root cost divided by the weight initially delivered. This is the economic bridge between a field price and an ingredient quotation.

A higher quoted food price does not create a simple arbitrage

The gap between food and industrial cassava prices is striking, but it cannot be treated as a guaranteed gain from changing the label on a truckload. Food buyers may require a particular variety, presentation, size, condition and delivery scale. Industrial buyers may purchase larger volumes under different acceptance and collection terms. The grower’s actual alternative is the market willing to accept that crop, with all additional costs included.

Payment terms should identify whether the buyer pays for fresh delivered weight, sampled dry matter, recoverable starch or accepted dry chips. Each basis allocates moisture and processing risk differently. Before harvest, growers need to know how sampling works, which deductions apply and when payment is due.

A cooperative considering a move into food processing consequently needs evidence of repeat demand. A product’s selling price has to cover processing, packaging, testing, distribution and any unsold stock as well as roots. A higher price per kilogram can coexist with a smaller market and higher selling costs. The business case improves when customer requirements shape planting and processing decisions before the crop is harvested.

Time after harvest is a production constraint

FAO’s technical account of cassava processing describes deterioration beginning within about 48 hours after roots are harvested. It also distinguishes maximizing root weight from maximizing starch yield. The practical lesson is to coordinate harvest with the intended processing schedule and condition requirements, rather than assume a lifted root can wait indefinitely for a better offer. Source 11

That short interval makes collection discipline particularly valuable. A buyer needs visibility over which farms will harvest, how much material they expect and when trucks can arrive. Farmers need confidence that a planned delivery will actually be received. If a processing line stops, the cost can spread back through the collection network. Buffering the system with dependable maintenance and clear delivery arrangements is often more useful than merely increasing planted area.

DA-PRDP’s 2015 approval of a ₱39-million cassava-granules enterprise in South Cotabato illustrates the bundle of services involved. The proposed cooperative project combined planting-material supply, tractors and trucks, chipping or granulating equipment, solar drying and storage. It is a historical investment design, rather than evidence of current output, but it shows why an industrial cassava project cannot be reduced to the purchase of a single processing machine. Source 8

Planting material and soil management belong in the business plan

DA’s 2024 cassava seed-piece program called for foundation material from registered varieties, multiplication through participating institutions and BPI inspection of propagation areas. It also required attention to the varieties preferred by private buyers. Eligible beneficiaries could receive 10,000–13,000 planting pieces for one hectare, with a one-hectare support ceiling. These provisions connect the quality of the next crop with both plant health and its intended market. Source 3

Planting material is an early commitment to a product. A grower supplying a starch or feed buyer needs a variety and harvest arrangement suited to that use; a food-root seller needs the characteristics customers will accept. Distributing material without a credible destination for the harvest can increase biological output while leaving the marketing problem untouched. Inspection and source records also make it easier to investigate poor crop establishment or an emerging disease problem.

A separate DA circular for cassava fertilizer support, issued as Series 2025 and uploaded in January 2026, provides a range of two to five bags per hectare, covering at most one hectare per beneficiary. Regional offices determine support within the program’s rules. The circular emphasizes lower-yielding areas and nutrient management. Its yield and income improvements are program objectives, not measured benefits that can be assigned to every recipient. Source 4

Cassava’s usefulness in difficult farming conditions should not be confused with an absence of management costs. A repeated commercial harvest must be supported by appropriate soil and crop management if the farm is to continue producing. The useful assessment is whether an additional input or service increases saleable output enough to cover its cost, and whether the response is consistent on the particular land involved. A standard input package cannot answer that question by itself.

Safety is part of ingredient quality

Cassava contains cyanogenic compounds whose levels vary with cultivar and growing conditions. BAFS explains that appropriate processing reduces them, while inadequate processing can leave excessive residues. This is a product-specific control problem: a moisture result alone does not establish that cyanogenic compounds have been adequately reduced. Food businesses should obtain suitable raw material and use validated processes for the product they sell. Source 5

Mycotoxin prevention concerns a different hazard. The 2025 BAFS code for food cassava calls for clean raised drying surfaces, protection from contamination and rewetting, and a maximum 13% moisture content for the dried products it covers. It also calls for checking lots before storage and recording identifying details such as harvest date, variety and destination. Its food scope should not be silently substituted for every industrial-feed contract. Source 6

These controls have an economic purpose as well as a safety purpose. A rejected consignment loses value after the farmer and processor have already spent money on it. A consistent lot supports repeat orders, while traceability helps locate the cause if a specification fails. The right quality system begins before dispatch and follows the ingredient through processing and storage. Final inspection is more effective when the preceding records make the product understandable.

Sweet potato and ube point toward distinct opportunities

A VSU PhilRootcrops project reported by DOST-PCAARRD in 2022 developed an improved vacuum fryer and products from orange sweet potato and processing trimmings, including flour and powder. The project worked on enterprises and market links in Central Luzon, Albay, Leyte and Samar. These were documented development outputs; they should not be mistaken for a measured national market share. Their significance is the attempt to connect equipment, product development and customers. Source 9

Ube presents another set of requirements. A July 2026 DA consultation discussed planting-material multiplication, cultivar selection, processing hubs, color classification and Philippine branding. These were development priorities and proposals, including support considered for a future budget. The discussion shows that a recognizable finished-product identity still depends on consistent agricultural material and processing performance. Source 10

Root crops offer several viable directions, but no single development formula. Bulk cassava ingredients need efficient collection and predictable processing. Fresh food crops need the qualities their customers value. Branded products need repeat demand and a price that covers the entire route to the buyer. The strongest investment is the one that solves a demonstrated problem along that route, while allowing the grower, processor and customer to benefit from a crop that arrives in the right form.