PRESS RELEASE - Agro-Industrial Parks Forum

Cape Town, South Africa - Africa’s agricultural potential remains largely untapped, with post-harvest losses exceeding 30% for key commodities and a persistent reliance on imported processed foods.  This deficit in local value addition undermines food security, exports vital foreign exchange, and misses a crucial opportunity for job creation and industrialisation.Urgent action is needed to bridge the gap between farm-level production and consumer markets.  The development of integrated Agro-Industrial Parks (AIPs) is widely recognized by the African Union (AU) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) as the critical catalyst for this transformation, designed to boost local processing, reduce waste and capture more value within the continent.

The inaugural Agro-Industrial Parks Forum, organized by the African Agri Council is a direct response to this challenge.  The forum will be a central feature of the 2025 African Agri Investment Indaba in Cape Town, serving as a dedicated platform to mobilize the investments and partnerships required to build these economic game changers.By co-locating processing facilities, storage, and logistics with agricultural production zones AIPs are designed to tackle systemic inefficiencies head-on. By convening the key players (from AfDB financiers and regulatory experts to global tech leaders like Bühler) the Forum facilitates the essential knowledge-sharing and relationship-building that underpin the journey toward bankable, operational assets.

“An agro-industrial park is more than infrastructure; it is an ecosystem for economic transformation,” commented Ben Leyka, CEO of the African Agri Council. “It is where a farmer's tomatoes becomes a bottle sauce for export, it is where grains are milled into fortified flour, and where skilled jobs are created for our youth.” Investment in AIPs directly addresses core continental challenges.  By establishing processing and packaging facilities within Africa, these parks significantly reduce post-harvest losses, increase farmers incomes by creating reliable local markets, and enhance food security by ensuring a stable supply of nutritious, processed foods.  Furthermore, they position Africa to move up on the global value chain from a raw material exporter to a supplier of value-added products, saving and earning from critical foreign exchange.  

The Agro-Industrial Parks Forum will provide a focused environment for deal-making, showcasing viable park projects, and facilitating the partnerships essential for building the infrastructure that will define the future of African Agribusiness. Designed to convert strategy into tangible outcomes, the agenda moves from policy frameworks to practical solutions. It features sessions on AfDB financing models, climate-smart finance, and real-world innovations in AI and storage technology from global leaders. This is where the continent's agro-industrial strategy is translated into tangible investment and development opportunities. ABOUT THE AGRO-INDUSTRIAL PARKS FORUM The Agro-Industrial Parks Forum is the continent’s premier platform dedicated to accelerating the development of integrated agro-processing zones across Africa.  It brings together industry leaders, policymakers, multilateral agencies, investors and innovators to explore opportunities and solutions for the development and sustainability of agro-industrial parks.  The Forum is hosted during the African Agri Investment Indaba on 24 November 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa ABOUT THE AFRICAN AGRI INVESTMENT INDABAThe 8th African Agri Investment Indaba is the continent's largest meeting place for agrifood investment in Africa. Bringing together over 800 key stakeholders – from governments, banks, financiers, investors, project owners, project developers, commercial farmers and the agro and food processing industry – to discuss trends that will likely influence food and agribusiness economics over the next decade in Africa.

The Agri Indaba delivers a unique mix of decision makers from across the food and agriculture value chain making it the most effective place to conduct business in the sector.

MEDIA CONTACTS & INTERVIEWS Reinhard Lotz, Marketing Director reinhard.lotz@agricouncil.org +27 72 437 4441