Processing for development

Products: Dried Bananas with Foconah (Musa AAB), Figue Pomme (MusaAAB), Gros Michel (Musa AAA) and Pisang Mas (Musa AA) ; dried fruits (plum, mango, papaya), green leafy vegetables,…

Country: BP 6011, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Telephone/Fax: (237) 223 7040
E-mail: les.taless@laposte.net

Type of business: Medium scale

Contact: Mr. Talle, a food technologist and businessman who is both the technical and business leader of “Les Taless”.

This company has two divisions: an equipment providing enterprise and a food processing unit. The original idea behind the creation of Taless Dry Foods in 1992, was to test and optimise the performance of dryers constructed by the equipment branch of his business (Taless SIEMEF) before sale.The enterprise is well structured.

Strengths and weaknesses of the unit and contribution to the rural development

Steps in product preparation

1. Raw material:
- Cleaning or washing the fruits
- Storage or keeping till the optimal ripeness stage
- Selection of appropriate fruits for process (weighing)
2. Adequate quality fruit (ripeness stage, size):
- Peeling and cutting up
- Blanching (not often)
3. Sliced or entire pulps:
- Displaying the pulps on the wicker rack
- Sending them in the dryers
- Drying (36-48hrs depending on the energy source

4. Dried bananas:
- Removal of the wicker racks and sorting dry products
- Cooling down and storage at ambient temperature
- Selection
5. Quality dried bananas:
The products are packaged in polypropylene bags in units of 20g, 40g, 100g, 200g and 500g labelled and sealed using imported heated sealer.
6. Final products ( Storage or distribution for sale)

Marketing and input access

The business is linked to the market chain through traders who purchase raw materials in different village markets close Yaoundé for sale to the factory where the processing takes place. The dried products are distributed to hotels and supermarkets for sale. The proprietors of the hotels and supermarkets pay cash for the goods but sometimes they take them on credit. So far, Taless Dry Foods has had only one point of sales to test mark et preference. He referred to Hilton Hotel, but there was also a supermark et test point. He is the direct distributor of his own products.
Prices vary according to the season and the client (because of the raw material cost fluctuation in the nearest villages). The products are yet to be certified by the regulatory authorities of Cameroon.

Taless Dry Foods support services

Equipment providers
- Taless SIEMEF (dryers)
- Cameroon Continue (packaging material)
- Batoula (packaging material)

Technical support on processing
(Food Science programmes)
- ENSAI ( University of Ngaoundéré)
- CARBAP
- CIRAD (… CDE…)

Financial support services
- MC2 (rural community bank)
- CDE

Technical assistance
- AGRO PME (Business management, investment plan)
- INIBAP (information)
- AFEX (African Association for fruits export)

Also student interns from France developed an investment plan.