Many African aquaculture industries have been shaped by vertically integrated companies that build markets, infrastructure, and employment. As the sector matures, a new model is needed: conglomerates that span related sectors—hatcheries, feed mills, logistics—creating efficiency and value across the chain.
Such conglomerates can unlock cost savings and innovation that smaller, standalone companies often cannot—particularly in feed, which remains the largest production cost. Because these businesses are specialised but interlinked, they’re motivated to reduce inefficiencies and experiment with novel approaches: supporting a long-term vision for the sector as a whole.
One promising example for SME customers is hybrid feeding: starting production with low-cost nutrition such as fertilised green water, then finishing with high-protein commercial feed. This model offers savings while supporting good growth rates.
By integrating service providers, small farms, feed innovators, and traders into these ecosystems, we can build local value chains that proactively enable SME growth—not in isolation, but as part of an aligned commercial system.