UPDATED: Nigeria’s Farmcrowdy Gets Into The “Meat Game” With Formal Acquisition Of Best Foods

Farmcrowdy, the Nigerian agritech startup that has built a trusted crowdfunding platform that allows individuals to invest directly in the agricultural sector, has doled out an undisclosed amount to acquire a majority stake in Best Foods L&P Limited, an agro company that specialises in meat processing.

By acquiring a majority stake, Farmcrowdy has taken ownership of Best Food’s assets, team, and customer contracts to supply meat across Nigeria.

According to a press release seen by WeeTracker, Best Foods has been in the agribusiness for over 16 years, making a mark in the processing of livestock (Best Food Livestock and Poultry), farming (Best Food Fresh Farms), and marketing of agricultural produce.

Through this acquisition, Farmcrowdy, which prides itself on being Nigeria’s first digital agriculture platform, is formally entering into the meat business having reportedly begun supplying fresh meat to some top restaurants in Lagos last year in what seems like a hushed diversification move.

“Best Foods offers an exciting opportunity for Farmcrowdy to strengthen and expand its service offering in livestock production, processing, and supply” explains Kenneth Obiajulu, Managing Director of Farmcrowdy.

“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.”

Through the acquisition of Best Foods L&P Limited, Farmcrowdy will be looking to take advantage of 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 expanded business is expected to serve over 50 meat markets (including beef and poultry) across the south-western zone in Nigeria and will manage over 100 consumer endpoints.

Reports show that Lagos alone consumes 6,000 cattle everyday while Nigeria processes over 1.2 billion chickens annually.

With this in mind, the agritech startup has plans to launch 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 everyday while Nigeria processes over 1.2 billion chickens annually.

Emmanuel Ijewere, Founder of Best Foods, 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.”

As part of the deal, Ijewere will be joining Farmcrowdy as a member of the advisory board.

Founded in 2016 by Onyeka Akumah, Farmcrowdy is best known to connect small scale farmers across Nigeria 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.

The startup does this by enabling people to invest directly in the agricultural sector through a crowdfunding model.

The company uses the fund to support farmers, providing them with financing, agricultural extension support, and market access.

Akumah who was delighted by the development commented, in part, as follows: “Farmcrowdy is Nigeria’s leading Agtech company using technology to change the way people invest in agriculture then grow the food they eat.”

He added: “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.”