Farmcrowdy acquires one of the largest meat processors in Nigeria

Farmcrowdy has today announced the acquisition of Best Foods (L&P) to offer a wider livestock production and processing solution to the meat market. The acquisition will see Farmcrowdy owning majority stakes in Best Foods L&P Limited including its assets, team and customer contracts to supply meat across Nigeria. 

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. 

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. 

“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.”

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.” Ijewere will be joining Farmcrowdy as a member of the advisory board.

Onyeka Akumah who is the Founder & CEO of Farmcrowdy 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”.