As principal and originator
We establish agribusinesses and agri-technology companies on our own account, partnering with major companies and leading technology providers across the value chain.
Large-scale · inclusive · sustainable agriculture
Large-scale agribusiness, developed across the value chain
ImpactAgri originates, develops, manages and advises large-scale sustainable agribusinesses across Africa, bringing together major companies, investors and local stakeholders to build businesses that are economically viable, socially and gender inclusive, environmentally sustainable and culturally sensitive.
10+years
developing large-scale agribusinesses
50+projects
and advisory assignments
20countries
of operation and presence
~US$500m
actual and potential investment
About us
A specialist agribusiness
development company
Established in 2015. Commercially led with a strong purpose, we work in three distinct capacities.
As equity participant
We deliver agribusiness solutions for major mining and similar companies in exchange for significant equity in the resulting businesses, plus set-up and management fees.
As third-party adviser
We advise governments, major companies, investors and development finance institutions on strategies for agribusiness development and agri-technology deployment.
Our strategy
- High value and high nutrition
Develop businesses producing a mix of high-value crops for hard currency and high-nutrition crops for local markets.
- Stakeholder prosperity
Create genuine, sustainable prosperity for local stakeholders alongside attractive returns for investors.
- Complete value chains
Work with major partners and key local stakeholders to create complete agribusiness value chains rather than isolated farming operations.
- Solutions for mining companies
Deliver agri-solutions and services for mining companies to meet increasing development and remediation requirements.
- Build resilience
Diversify across crops, geographies and technologies to stay resilient against market, technology and climate change.
Experience
Over ten years of agribusiness
development in Africa
More than 50 projects and advisory assignments across twenty countries since 2015, involving around US$500m of actual and potential investment — as principal, equity participant and adviser.
Select a circle for project detail
Colour = project type · circle size = total investment — US$3m to US$45m per project
Figures indicate total anticipated project size across both development phases. Projects range from early planning to active development, and figures are indicative rather than committed capital.
Advisory assignments by theme
- Technology22
- Climate, including REDD+17
- Regenerative agriculture & agroforestry17
- Energy & biofuels7
- Mining6
- Land remediation5
Assignments for major corporations, investors, governments, development finance institutions and agri-technology companies — in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zambia, and across Europe. Many span several themes.
Risk management
Success in agriculture is about much more than just the farm
Poor yield — from planning, varietals, management or weather — is far from the only risk. We work across the value chain and with every stakeholder to build a resilient business, not just a standalone farm.
1
Inputs
Seed, fertiliser, irrigation and agricultural technology from established supply partners.
2
Production
Large-scale cultivation, with smallholders and out-growers inside the supply plan.
3
Processing
Value added on site, so margin and employment are retained in the country.
4
Logistics
Routes to port and to local market, costed within the original business model.
5
Market
A committed buyer at an agreed price, secured before land is planted.
- Offtake
Buyers are engaged ahead of cultivation, with volumes and prices agreed in advance and managed through the season.
- Quality
Specification and handling are managed to the buyer’s premises, so less arrives downgraded.
- Inputs
Diversion of inputs to informal sale is designed out, and products are applied safely and as intended.
- Supply
For the offtaker, security of supply is established as a contractual term.
- Stakeholders
Local teams surface community and government concerns early enough to act on them.
- Resources
Water and land dependencies are modelled during planning rather than discovered later.
Our approach
Four examples of agribusiness
Our solutions are specifically designed for each situation. Different structures suit different counterparties; for example, a mining group, a development finance institution, or an established family operator moving into a new crop.
Integrated local processing
Cultivation and processing in one operation, ensuring employment and added value stay in-country. Five sugar projects each pair milling capacity of 740 to 1,000 tonnes of cane a day with 3MW of on-site power co-generation. Elsewhere the portfolio includes 5,000ha of animal feed grown for export, a 2,000ha rehabilitative tree-crop scheme refining its own biodiesel where it is grown, irrigated block farms supplying a multi-crop offtake business, and a West African programme opening markets for high-value forest crops out of Burkina Faso.
Mining-related agribusiness
A mine already holds the water licence, the land, the roads and the workforce. We convert those into an enterprise that outlasts the mine and regenerates land as it does — increasingly a condition of licence across the region. Current work spans horticulture alongside operating copper and coal mines, an 85ha agri-hub growing produce for local markets and citrus for export, and agroforestry on a bauxite concession.
How this works in practiceInclusive smallholder agribusiness
A commercial core with small-scale producers designed into the operating plan from the outset. Our experience includes macadamia growing and processing built into smallholder supply, tree nut and oil crops with integrated horticulture, and the expansion of an established coffee and macadamia operation — in east and southern Africa.
How this works in practiceSpecial situations
High-value crops in the critical places where climate, water and harvest timing align. Blueberry operations produce up to 4,000 tonnes a year into the northern-hemisphere winter window, one of them alongside a renewable energy partner on 150ha. The portfolio also includes a 25ha fig operation in the Western Cape, specialist forest crops in Madagascar, and technology investments in multiple countries.
Inclusive smallholder agribusiness, in practice
The core commercial hub
A farm with processing, viable in its own right, whose training, finance, services and infrastructure are shared with the local trained farmers and smallholders around it.
Infrastructure, inputs, training and finance reach every farm through the core — the commercial farms as much as the smallholders.
Illustrative. Each hub is sized to its site; the mix of commercial and smallholder farms varies by project.
- 1
Training and incubation
Classroom and field-based training, mentorship and enterprise incubation, with 30 to 50 graduates a year.
- 2
Shared infrastructure
Irrigation, equipment and energy shared across the hub, with technical support for enterprise development and operations.
- 3
Risk-appropriate finance
Instruments combined to lower the cost of capital, with affordable access for small-scale farms and a mix of risk pooling and individual incentives.
- 4
Restoration and regeneration
Soil health, remediation and regenerative practice built into the design, so the land improves over the life of the operation.
Mining-related agribusiness, in practice
Across the mine lifecycle
We engage from exploration onwards, so that by the time extraction winds down the agribusiness is already established, employing people and holding the land.
Examples of recent projects
- Stage 1Guinea · Bauxite
- Aquaculture (tilapia)
- Support requirement for agricultural development
- Stage 2Madagascar · Nickel
- Specialty spices
- Sustainable economic development
- Optimise use of port infrastructure
- Stage 3Namibia · Smelter
- Horticulture & citrus
- Sustainable economic activity & job creation
- Stage 4Zambia · Copper
- Biofuel crop
- Land rehabilitation & sustainable economic activity
- Stage 1Guinea · Iron
- Horticulture
- Local economic development, job creation & avoided migration
- Stage 2Zambia · Copper
- Horticulture & citrus
- Using mine land & water
- Job creation
- Stage 3Kenya · Specialty
- Various crops
- Bringing mine land & assets back into productive use
- Stage 4Europe · Legacy sites
- Review portfolio of sites for added-value & remediation cost reduction opportunities
Indicative. The agribusiness is designed to continue beyond mine closure.
- 1Commercial returns
Revenue generation
The agribusiness operates as a profit centre in its own right, with an optimal mix of short-term high-value crops and longer-term tree crops, predominantly for export.
- 2Economic development
Livelihoods and food security
A core horticultural farm generates revenue, trains local farmers and supplies fruit and vegetables to nearby communities, then extends inputs, offtake and processing to surrounding small-scale farms.
- 3Food security
Feed and aquaculture
In-land fish and livestock operations where waste becomes fertiliser for feed crops that in turn supply low-cost feed back to those operations, with processing added downstream.
- 4Land rehabilitation
Remediation and biofuels
Degraded or contaminated mining land is rehabilitated with tree crops that stabilise soils, raise nitrogen levels, sequester carbon and draw out heavy metals, while producing biofuel feedstock.
Methodology
How a project is developed
The sequence and stages are material. Many failed agricultural investments in the region missed critical steps.
01
Establish the market
Each project begins with an identified buyer and an agreed price, not with available land. No market, no project.
02
Prepare the business plan
Rigorous economics from operators with experience at comparable scale, supported by diagnostic assessment of the site and the chain.
03
Assemble the chain
Irrigation, fertigation, plant protection, agroforestry, remote sensing, logistics and offtake are all in place ahead of financial close.
04
Deliver locally
A local subsidiary leads delivery in each country. Investment structure, duration and equity position are agreed case by case.
The wider group
Sister companies
ImpactAgri sits alongside three companies that share its purpose, working on related challenges and using the same principles.
Irbaris
A specialist strategy consultancy advising major corporations, investors, governments and NGOs on the commercial issues created by climate change, natural resource constraints and emerging clean technologies.
Pheida
Develops and deploys biotech solutions at scale across energy, mining, industry and agriculture — cutting emissions and pollution, recovering valuable material from waste and remediating contaminated land and water.
ImpactMarine
Develops controlled-environment aquaculture using recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) technology, with salmon and sea bass sites in development across the Mediterranean, southern Africa and beyond.
Get in touch
Discuss a specific opportunity
Whether the objective is a post-mine economy, a reliable offtake position, or capital seeking productive deployment, we are glad to discuss specific opportunities, the portfolio, or an agribusiness you want to develop.