Gluten-free cassava flour cake project wins startup contest in HCMC

Cusami, a project in Ho Chi Minh City’s Cu Chi district that specializes in creating different types of cakes with cassava flour, has won first prize at the 2024 green startup ideas/project competition.

Results of the contest organized by the Business Association of High Quality Vietnamese Products and the Business Studies and Assistance Centre (BSA) in HCMC were announced Sunday.

In group A, which featured individuals or startup groups with projects under one year old, the Cusami project won the first prize of VND60 million ($2,370). It is being implemented by Yam Kitchen Co., Ltd. in HCMC, founded and led by Mai Tuan Anh.

Cusami creates “international-style” dishes with cassava (also known as manioc) cultivated in Cu Chi district. The root is processed to make flour for making mozzarella cheese cakes, molten salted egg lava cakes and sweet-and-sour Taiwanese pineapple jam.

The project looks to serve health-conscious customers who are looking to lose weight or avoid gluten. Cassava flour is a slow-digesting starch, making it an ideal alternative for gluten-free diets.

Anh said the company was guiding farmers in the Phu My Hung commune to grow cassava under VietGap and GlobalGap standards to ensure that the raw material meets export requirements.

The global gluten-free market is valued at $8 billion, with the diet market reaching $109 billion, largely driven by Western consumers.

In the future, Cusami plans to participate in the city’s One Commune One Product (OCOP) program.

The project is a departure from how cassava is traditionally consumed in Vietnam – boiled, steamed in coconut milk and so on.

In Group B for projects which have been operating for over four years, the first-place prize of VND150 million ($5,940) was awarded to Nong Trai 123 Co., Ltd. in Dong Thap province for their project “Enhancing the value of kumquat, grapefruit, and soursop.”

Among other award winners, the project “Activated carbon, toothpaste from activated carbon and air filter bags” developed by Thong Long, a Raglay farmer specializing in charcoal burning, and his colleagues, took home the VND40 million ($1,582) second-place prize in group A.

The final round of this year’s green startup competition saw 36 projects competing across two groups: group A with 12 projects and group B with 24 projects.