In a previous post, I shared insights on how to start a cowpea/beans farming business and how profitable it is. In today’s post, I will be telling you how to process cowpea grains into flour and make huge returns from it.
Beans production is majorly practiced in West Africa; Nigeria to be précised. It has so many economic benefits and also serves as a cheap source of protein for human consumption. Meals such as bean cake, bean pudding, bean dumplings, porridge etc are prepared with beans and can also be combined with other cooked meals like rice, yam, pasta, plantain, maize and so on.
In preparing most of these meals, it is often preferred that they are prepared using beans flour. The reason is that beans flour makes the cooking less stressful and faster. Beans flour can also last for a very long time if properly preserved so you are not limited to selling it to local markets. You can also go into the big business of exporting beans flour and trust me it is very lucrative.
Companies like Ayoola Foods and Janeland Limited have successfully established themselves in this business. You too can make good use of this business opportunity and earn a comfortable stable income.
Starting beans flour production business in Nigeria
Starting this business depends on the scale you would want to operate. You can either choose to start the business in a small scale, medium scale or large scale. Starting in a small way can be very hectic. You would have to carry out operations manually and this is time consuming.
Setting up your business in a large scale is more preferable to improve your earnings but it is capital intensive as you would have to purchase equipments and machines like:
De-huller: used for removing the outer part of bean grains.
Aspirator: used for reducing the water content of cowpea grains.
Hammer Mill with Cyclone: used for grounding grains into flour.
This equipments mentioned above are the most important ones for the production process. You can also get a sealing machine to seal packaged products before they can be taken for sale, Al Bowl, branded nylon and Weighing scale. You should also provide means for electrical supply.
Stages involved in beans flour production
Get a suitable workplace
In setting up the business on a large scale, you will have to seek for a suitable place where you can set up your business. Though, if you do not desire to run the business in a big way, getting a workplace will not be necessary.
Source for grains and equipments
After you have successfully acquired a plant, you should begin to look for potential suppliers of bean grains. Starting up your own beans farm can ease you the stress and cost of purchasing bean grains at expensive price. I have carefully explained how to set up a beans/cowpea farm in this post. Brown and white beans are generally required for flour making.
You can contact companies incharge of manufacturing the equipments you need for the production and buy from them. The installation will also be carried out by workers that are hired by these companies.
Processing
The processing stage of bean grains involves sorting, dehulling, drying, milling and sifting.
Now let me fully explain these processes for easy understanding. The grains are sorted at first. In this case the grains are separated from chaff, sand and stones.
After sorting, the next process is dehulling. The outer covering of the grains are removed. Some people do this by placing the grains inside water for few minutes before rubbing the grains against one another. This makes the outer cover remove easily.
The next step is to dry the grains properly. You can do this by placing them in an oven or directly placing them under the sun.
After drying, the grains are broken down into smooth powder called flour. This process is known as Milling.
Sifting is the last processing stage which involves separating grains that have been properly broken down from the ones that have not been properly broken down. This process can be carried out through sieving.
After safely carrying out these processes, you should seek for the registration of your company through NAFDAC and other related bodies to enable the commercialization of your product.
Packaging
This is the last stage in beans flour production process and indeed the most important stage. You should give great attention to this part. Packaging has its own way of self advertising your products. Package the flour in a convenient pack and should be properly sealed. Employ the assistance of a graphics designer to make well attractive designs on the pack. The pack should not only be attractive but should be well detailed too. You can put down a short description of your product and its benefits. It also makes customers feel your product is better than any other flour product out there.
Proper packaging can also increase the durability of flour. You can also mix the flour with little quantity of ginger powder to enable it lasts longer.
In summary, large scale production of beans flour as I have said earlier is capital intensive and can consume more than 25 million naira for proper management.
Do not forget to have a plan for creating better strategies. Create impressive advertising measures and the sky shall be your starting point.
