NIGERIA · AGRIBUSINESS
Key Facts
- —The launch Olam Agri launched its Tru Value cattle feed range in Kaduna State on 11 September 2026.
- —The products Beef Pellet, Beef Plus Pellet and Dairy Pellet.
- —Why it matters It is the company’s first move into ruminant nutrition in Nigeria.
- —Existing capacity More than 800,000 tonnes of poultry feed a year, and over 150,000 tonnes of aqua feed from Ilorin, Kwara State.
- —The market Expert Market Research puts Nigerian animal feed at 15.45 million tonnes in 2025, rising to 18.47 million by 2035.
- —The real growth rate That implies a compound annual growth rate of just 1.80%.
A feed market growing at under two percent a year is not a boom. What makes cattle feed worth entering is that almost nobody in Nigeria buys it yet.
Olam Agri has launched a range of cattle feed in Kaduna State, its first move into ruminant nutrition in Nigeria. The launch adds beef and dairy pellets to a business built on poultry and fish feed.
What Was Launched
The Tru Value range was presented in Kaduna State on 11 September 2026. It comprises three products: Beef Pellet, Beef Plus Pellet and Dairy Pellet.
Sharad Gupta, president and global head of integrated feed and protein at Olam Agri, presented the range. Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiha, minister of livestock development, said quality animal nutrition remains one of the most important factors for farmers. He cited better growth rates, improved milk yields and higher returns. Coverage of the launch came through a promoted feature carried by Premium Times and picked up by Ecofin Agency and the trade press — company-supplied coverage of the event rather than independent reporting on it.
What Olam Already Runs
The company operates an integrated feed mill, poultry breeding farm and day-old-chick hatchery in Kaduna, and an aqua feed plant in Ilorin, Kwara State.
Capacity is more than 800,000 tonnes of poultry feed a year and over 150,000 tonnes of aqua feed. Olam says it supplies more than 15,000 local fish farmers, a company figure that has not been independently verified.
The base was built on a US$150 million investment announced in April 2016, about N30 billion at the roughly N200 to the dollar then prevailing. It was split about US$100 million in Kaduna and US$50 million in Kwara, with combined capacity initially projected above 600,000 tonnes a year.
The Market Number, and Its Problem
Expert Market Research, a commercial research firm rather than a government statistics agency, puts Nigeria’s animal feed market at 15.45 million tonnes in 2025, rising to 18.47 million tonnes by 2035. That is roughly three million tonnes over a decade.
Spread across ten years, it is a compound annual growth rate of 1.80%. That is below plausible population growth and does not describe a high-growth market. Anyone citing the 18.47 million figure without the growth rate is describing a bigger opportunity than the data supports — the volume shows the market’s size, the growth rate shows how slowly it is moving, and neither means much without the other.
Why Ruminant Feed Anyway
The better argument for entering is penetration rather than growth. Most Nigerian cattle are raised on open grazing and crop residues, not on formulated feed. The addressable market is therefore defined by conversion rather than by expansion.
Nigeria’s Livestock Master Plan 2026 to 2040 was adopted in April 2026 and developed with the International Livestock Research Institute. It projects cattle numbers rising to 75 million by 2040 from around 61 million, sheep to 110 million and goats to 199 million.
The same plan identifies a feed dry-matter shortfall of 8.33%, with 194.7 million tonnes available against 212.4 million tonnes required. That gap, not a vendor growth rate, is the case for the business.
What Olam Brings
Olam Agri is among Nigeria’s larger buyers of maize and soybean, the two principal feed inputs. That gives it a position in raw material sourcing that smaller mills do not have. The company has not published procurement volumes, so its exact scale in those markets is not public.
Distribution is the harder problem. Poultry feed reaches concentrated commercial farms. Cattle feed has to reach dispersed pastoral and semi-settled herders, which is a different logistics question entirely.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What did Olam Agri launch?
The Tru Value cattle feed range — Beef Pellet, Beef Plus Pellet and Dairy Pellet — in Kaduna State on 11 September 2026.
Is this new for the company?
Yes. It is its first move into ruminant nutrition in Nigeria, after poultry and fish feed.
How big is Nigeria’s feed market?
15.45 million tonnes in 2025, projected at 18.47 million by 2035 — a growth rate of 1.80% a year.
What capacity does Olam have?
More than 800,000 tonnes of poultry feed a year and over 150,000 tonnes of aqua feed from Ilorin.
What did it invest?
US$150 million announced in April 2016, about US$100 million in Kaduna and US$50 million in Kwara.
Sources: Premium Times (promoted), Ecofin Agency, Feed Business MEA, Olam Agri, Nigeria Livestock Master Plan 2026–2040.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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