Farmcrowdy is Nigeria’s first digital agriculture platform has acquired Best Foods (L&P) to offer a wider livestock production and processing solution to the meat market; for an undisclosed amount.
Best Foods L&P Limited is rated as one of Nigeria’s largest meat processors.
Farmcrowdy is a Nigerian and globally recognised Company that connects small scale farmers across with smart farming techniques, quality farm inputs, and access to the superior markets to earn a decent profit margin compared to what they get from trading within their locality.
With this acquisition Farmcrowdy is now owning majority stakes in Best Foods L&P Limited including its assets, team and customer contracts to supply meat across Nigeria.
Best Foods as an agribusiness group has been operating in the sub-sector for over 16 years.
Their operations are 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.
TechEconomy.ng understand that in this light, the acquisition of Best Foods L&P Limited 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.
Known for its prowess in adapting technology to agriculture, 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.
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Speaking on the new development, Managing Director of Farmcrowdy, Kenneth Obiajulu, said,
“Best Foods offers an exciting opportunity for Farmcrowdy to strengthen and expand its service offering in livestock production, processing, and supply.
“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,” he added.
Also, the Founder of Best Foods, said, Emmanuel Ijewere, “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 Founder & CEO of Farmcrowdy, Onyeka Akumah also commented:
“Farmcrowdy is Nigeria’s leading Agtech company using technology to change the way people invest in Agriculture then grow the food they eat. Today, this 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”.
He concluded by saying,
“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”.
Farmcrowdy has a vision to be the foremost digital agriculture platform in Africa admired for its impact on collaborative food production and boosting food security across the continent.
Achieving these goals will go a long way in improving the economies of rural farm localities and strengthening food security across Africa.
