Ok, so first thing you should do is to plan your business.

You need to draw a

feasibility plan to know if you are prepared to run the business. Depending on your
financial capacity, you need to decide your first scale of production [small-scale,
medium or large-scale]

You need to know where and how to get the raw materials, what machines the
production will require and which of those machines you can do without at first.
For example, you can do without a peeling machine at the beginning but a hammer
mill is very necessary.

You also need to know where the get the machines in the first place and what they
will cost.

As a new business, you need a functional business/feasibility plan and the first
thing to do while starting plantain flour production is to come up with one.

I prepared a free online course on how to write a business plan.

I also have a fully prepared business plan for plantain flour production.
Everything you need to know about the business is covered inside it.

Plantain flour production process [step-by-step]

1. Sorting and weighing

First thing is, you sort the raw plantain. You need to remove the bad, immature,
rotten or unsuitable ones. This should be done manually because no machine has the
intelligence to make that type of human judgement (yet lol). The sorting process
ensures you have only healthy plantain for production.

After sorting, you weigh the raw plantain to get the quantity of input. This
information will be important when you write the nutrition analysis. It is also
important during fortification and packaging.

2. Blanching

You soak the selected plantain in hot water for a while to soften peels. Peeling
strong plantains could be a tiring and painful process as any woman would tell you.
Blanching makes this process easier.

3. Peeling and slicing

After blanching, you peel off the skin to get the plantain you need for processing.
You can do this manually, of course, but for large-scale production you can do this
with a machine which could be expensive. Beginners can do without the extra cost.

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After peeling, you slice the plantain in smaller chips. Again, there is a machine
for this but for beginners, you can do it manually.

4. Drying

After peeling and slicing, you dry the sliced plantain in preparation for milling.
You can use an industrial drying machine which is more effective for commercial
purposes. If you just want to make plantain flour for dinner, then you can use any
of the manual drying methods available to you.

Note: Everything about the machines you need for this business, what they cost and
where to find fabricators to make them are detailed in the business/feasibility
plan I prepared for this business.

5. Milling

This is where you obtain the plantain flour. You need a hammer mill for this. If
you can�t get it, you need to find someone who has it. I can�t think of an
alternative to using a hammer mill.

6. Sieving and packaging

After milling, all that remains is to sieve the flour to get the desired fine
particle sizes. You can send the larger particles back to the mill to get a uniform
texture and size.

The rest is packaging. Your product is ready for consumption or sale depending on
what your goal is.

7. Marketing

As I said earlier, market for plantain flour is already there and the demand is
interesting. You can introduce your product to local restaurants. You can also use
any available media advertising strategies to get the word out about your product
and brand.

Don�t forget social media and how it gives wider publicity at cheaper cost.

What�s next?

You make your own plantain flour, of course.

Before you run off to buy machines for your plantain flour production business, you
need to make sure that you can produce high-quality plantain flour by yourself.
Remember that what gives you the most long-term business is the quality of your
product.

Go ahead and produce your own plantain flour, no matter how little. The idea is to
get a good grasp of the processing techniques. You will have more questions, I can
promise you that; that is the beauty of the learning.

About the plantain flour production business plan

This business is prepared specifically for people who want to hit the ground
running in this business. Part of knowing how to start plantain flour production
business is having a solid business plan to back it up.

You can use the business plan as a further knowledge base and a guideline to know
what you are doing. You can also use it to attract funding from public and private
sectors.