Full weight, every bag
Every bag is weighed twice and sealed. A 50 kg bag of garri is 50 kg when it reaches you, not when it leaves the mill.
Our story
A family farm that kept saying yes to the next season.
Agrovia started in 1998 on forty hectares near Otuocha. Twenty-eight years later it is a group of five divisions, one mill, a feed plant and 2,300 farming partners, still run from Onitsha.
Where it began
Forty hectares, one tractor and a grater.
Our founder, Chief Okwudili Anozie (example name), bought his first plot with savings from a provisions shop at Main Market. The first harvest was cassava, grated by hand and roasted in a shed behind the family house.
The tractor broke down twice in the first season. The cassava sold anyway, because the garri was clean, dry and the bags were always full weight. That rule still decides everything we do.
Chapters
Twenty-eight years, five turning points
- 1998
The first plot
Forty hectares of cassava and maize near Otuocha, with three workers and the founder’s brother as manager.
- 2006
Eggs at Main Market
A first poultry house with 2,000 layers. Eggs went to traders from the back of a blue pickup every morning at six.
- 2014
The mill and the outgrowers
A garri and flour mill opened, and 300 neighbouring farmers signed the first outgrower agreements with fixed buying prices.
- 2021
Fish, feed and the sun
Twenty-two fish ponds, a feed mill using our own maize, and a solar plant that keeps the mill running when the grid fails.
- 2026
A group of five
Crops, poultry, aquaculture, processing and feed, 1,840 hectares and deliveries to four cities.
What we hold to
Four rules from the first season
Pay farmers on time
Outgrowers are paid by bank transfer within 48 hours of weighing. Late payment breaks trust faster than a bad harvest.
Leave the soil better
Crop rotation, cover crops and composted manure. We measure soil carbon on every block every two years.
Hire from the valley
Nine in ten of our staff live within 20 km of the estate. We train them and promote from within first.
Leadership
The people who run the group
Ijeoma Anozie, managing director
Agricultural economist and the founder’s daughter. Joined in 2009 to start the outgrower programme. Example person.
Tochukwu Eze, head of farms
Twenty years on the estate, from tractor driver to running all 1,840 hectares. Example person.
Amarachi Obi, head of processing
Food scientist who built the garri line and the quality lab. Example person.
Kenechukwu Nwafor, finance
Runs the books, the Receivly collections and the outgrower payments. Example person.
640
people employed full time
2,300
outgrowers
4
cities served
28
years farming
My father said the land will tell you what it wants if you are patient. We just added a calendar and a mill.
Come and see where it started
The original forty hectares are still on the Saturday field walk.