Farmcrowdy acquires Best Foods Livestock and Poultry Limited

The acquisition, which was made at an undisclosed amount, comes 10 months after Farmcrowdy Group—the parent company of Agricsquare, Farmcrowdy and Farmgate Africa—announced a partnership with Best Foods Livestock and Poultry Limited and Livestock 247.

With this acquisition, Farmcrowdy now owns majority stake in Best Foods, including its assets and customer contracts. And as a result, it is set to launch retail meat hubs across Nigeria in the second quarter of the year. The founder of Best Foods, Emmanuel Ijewere will also be joining Farmcrowdy as a member of its advisory board.

Although as of press time Farmgate Africa website is unavailable, it is a platform for commodity trading and processing, while Agricsquare is a social community for agric enthusiast—a platform where people can talk about and get the latest news about the agric industry.

Best Foods offers an exciting oppotrunity for Farmcrowdy to strengthen and expand its service offering in livestock production, processing and supply. With a range of high-profile clients, this 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.

This acquisition will enable the four-year-old agritech company to expand its livestock value chain across Nigeria, starting with Lagos. Farmcrowdy will also be able to serve over 50 meat markets, including beef and poultry across southwestern Nigeria, and manage over 100 consumer endpoints.

Founded in 2000 by Emmanuel Ijewere, Best Foods Livestock and Poultry Limited is one of the leading names in the livestock and seafood processing industry in Nigeria. As an agribusiness group, Best Foods has three portfolio operations, namely: Best Foods Livestock and Poultry, Best Foods Fresh Farms and Best Foods Diary.

According to the statement released by Farmcrowdy Group, Best Foods has the capacity of processing between 120 and 200 bulls daily. "We handle our production from scratch to finish benchmarking against best global practices and ensuring that our operations do not contravene any religious beliefs," Best Foods says.

Farmcrowdy's acquisition of Best Foods provides a major growth opportunity for both businesses through an extended service offering for our clients.

Onyeka Akumah, Founder and CEO of Farmcrowdy, said the acquisition of Best Foods Livestock and Poultry Limited is a major milestone. "I grew up learning about the impact of Best Foods and Mr Ijewere in Nigeria's agricultural sector. We are absolutely delighted to welcome him to the Board of Farmcrowdy as we continue to grow this space together", Onyeka said.

Speaking on future plans, Onyeka, who was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Young Nigerians in 2019, said more collaborations and deals similar to this should be expected. He said: "We are happy to make plans towards launching Farmcrowdy Meat Hubs. This will enable people to order for the meat they sponsored for consumption. We manage the farms till harvest and now, people can order the meat. We are completing the full-cycle for livestock on our platform."