IT NEWS NIGERIA
IT News Nigeria:
Farmcrowdy announced today the acquisition of majority stake of Best Foods (L&P), one of the largest livestock processing company in Nigeria, to supply meat across the country and plans to launch Retail Meat Hubs across the nation before the end of June 2020.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Lagos, Founder & CEO of Farmcrowdy, Mr Onyeka Akumah is quoted as saying that Farmcrowdy is Nigeria’s leading Agtech company using technology to change the way people invest in Agriculture then grow the food they eat.
According to him, the acquisition of Best Foods L&P Limited is a major milestone for the entire team knowing that we only launched Farmcrowdy 3 years ago with a bunch of 20 & 30-year-olds. I grew up learning about the impact Best Foods and Mr. Ijewere had in the Agriculture space in Nigeria and we are absolutely delighted to welcome him to the Board of Farmcrowdy as we continue to grow this space together.
“Expect more collaborations and deals like this to grow the Agriculture sector but more importantly for us in Farmcrowdy, we are happy to now make plans to launch our Farmcrowdy meat hubs where every day people can sponsor livestock farms on Farmcrowdy, we manage the farms until harvest and finally, same people can now order for the meat they sponsored at our meat hubs for consumption. We are completing the full-cycle for livestock on our platform,” he added.
Best Foods is an agribusiness group of over 16 years focused on the processing of livestock (Best Food Livestock and Poultry), farming (Best Food Fresh Farms), and marketing of agricultural produce (Naijapride – wholesaler/ Best Food dairy and multi-concepts – retailer). Best Foods L&P Limited was established to provide wholesome livestock and agricultural produce grown in Nigeria at affordable prices within and outside the country. The company is credited as one of the largest meat processors in Lagos, Nigeria with a capacity to process 120 – 200 bulls every day.
On his part, Managing Director of Farmcrowdy , Mr Kenneth Obiajulu explained that Best Foods offers an exciting opportunity for Farmcrowdy to strengthen and expand its service offering in livestock production, processing, and supply.
According to him, “with a range of high profile clients, the acquisition supports Farmcrowdy’s strategy to lead the market and meet the requirements necessary to process approximately 45 cattle every day for meat consumption in Lagos.”
Founder of Best Foods, Mr Emmanuel Ijewere said, “this deal with Farmcrowdy is a welcome development for us as it provides a major growth opportunity for both businesses. We are excited about the many possibilities.” Ijewere will be joining Farmcrowdy as a member of the advisory board.
The acquisition of Best Foods L&P Limited , IT News Nigeria gathered, will provide Farmcrowdy the opportunity to continue to grow its Livestock value chain with an improved process for livestock production and processing to reach the desired high standards fit for local consumption and export were necessary. The expansion of the business will also enable Farmcrowdy to become the most preferred source of processed livestock across Nigeria starting from Lagos. The expanded business will serve over 50 meat markets (including beef and poultry) across the south-western zone in Nigeria and will manage over 100 consumer endpoints.
This acquisition will see Farmcrowdy enter the meat retail market with the launch of Farmcrowdy Meat Hubs across Lagos in Q2 2020 to provide quality meat produced and traded by Farmcrowdy for everyday consumers using Technology. Reports show that Lagos alone consumes 6,000 cattle every day while Nigeria processes over 1.2 billion chickens annually.
