LONDON (Alliance News) - AfriAg PLC, the agricultural logistics business operating in Africa, Tuesday said it intends to establish a new food marketing, sales and distribution division in South Africa which will source and then market fresh and frozen African produce within the Southern African region as well as from Southern Africa to global markets.
"Through its investment focus on agriculture and logistics in Africa, the company is seeing multiple global opportunities for AfriAg to assist with sourcing and supplying African food produce; in particular in Asia and the Middle East. We will use this new wholly-owned division to capitalise on these opportunities for the company," AfriAg Chairman David Lenegas said in a statement.
The move marks an expansion of the company's business from logistics, and seemingly away from its stated strategy. In a statement on its website, AfriAg said its vision for the future is to build a series of partnerships and alliances with specialist companies operating in agri-logistics throughout Africa to create the first truly pan-African agri-logistics conglomerate with offices and representative offices in all 55 Countries across Africa.
In its statement Tuesday, the company said the new division, called AfriAg Marketing, will be operated through a newly incorporated company in South Africa called AfriAg Marketing (Pty) Ltd that has no current revenue or profit. AfriAg Chairman David Lenigas and Director Donald Strang will be the initial directors of this new division, and in the start-up phase funding will come from AfriAg PLC's cash reserves.
AfriAg shares were down 9.1% at 0.5 pence Tuesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @SteveMcGrath1
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