Olam Agri is placing a massive bet on Africa’s changing dinner plate. The global agricultural trading powerhouse plans to pour roughly $400 million across key regional markets through 2028. The capital drive targets new feed mills, wheat processing infrastructure, and expanded food manufacturing hubs to capture rising urban consumer spending.

According to Bloomberg, the blueprint follows an aggressive $115 million deployment into West African processing assets over the past two years. Management is positioning the firm to profit from structural demographic changes across the continent. Rapid urbanization, higher household earnings, and shifting consumer habits continue driving sustained demand for commercial poultry, aquaculture, and packaged grain products.

Betting on changing diets

Surging demand for animal protein anchors the expansion strategy. In Nigeria, the merchant will erect its third domestic feed mill to ramp up poultry and fish feeds, expand local semolina output, and deploy 850 distribution trucks nationwide. The logistics push seeks to bypass notorious regional supply bottlenecks and tighten wholesale market reach.

Beyond Nigeria, the capital program branches into central and coastal West African markets. Olam Agri will build a 300,000-metric-ton poultry feed facility in Cameroon by early 2028. In neighboring Ivory Coast, the group is entering the domestic processing arena through wheat milling, commercial animal feeds, and industrial-scale poultry breeding operations.

Expanding footprint across borders

Downstream manufacturing assets in Ghana will also receive fresh capital to expand packaged pasta production lines, company officials confirmed. At the same time, regional executives are scouting frontier expansion opportunities across southern Africa, evaluating entry points into Angola to establish primary grain processing, feed blending, and port logistics operations.

Beyond expanding corporate capacity, the regional feed mills will reshape local agricultural trade flows once fully operational. Processing hubs across Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast will purchase over 500,000 metric tons of domestic corn and soybeans annually, drawing commercial supply contracts directly from more than 130,000 local smallholder farmers.

Backed by Gulf billions

The strategic buildout gains momentum following a sweeping corporate overhaul within parent firm Olam Group. Saudi Agriculture & Livestock Investment Co., the agribusiness vehicle of the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, recently completed a $1.88 billion purchase of an initial 44.58 percent stake in Olam Agri, cementing deep-pocketed sovereign backing.

That transaction handed the Saudi state investor an 80.01 percent majority stake, valuing Olam Agri at $4 billion before closing adjustments. Olam Group holds the remaining 19.99 percent interest as an associated business, retaining a clear path to exit the unit entirely as Gulf sovereign wealth funds accelerate international food security acquisitions.

Under the transaction terms, Olam Group holds a put option to offload its remaining 19.99 percent stake to SALIC around the third anniversary for approximately $799.6 million plus an agreed 6 percent return. SALIC maintains matching call rights to acquire full ownership, setting a firm road map toward complete operational control.