Southern Africa combines abundant agricultural potential with structural under-investment in infrastructure and finance, precisely the conditions in which an integrated platform can scale.

3.1 The African and South African context

Africa holds an estimated 60% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land yet remains a net food importer, with a food-import bill that has climbed from roughly US$85 billion in 2021 and continues to rise. The continent faces widening grain deficits, an expanding middle class, persistent mechanisation gaps and limited agricultural infrastructure, a combination that favours operators who can supply storage, finance, inputs and mechanisation at scale.

Within this, South Africa is the region’s most sophisticated agricultural economy. According to Statistics South Africa and the Department of Agriculture, primary agriculture contributes about 2.8% of GDP directly, but the broader agricultural value chain accounts for roughly 14% of a R7.34 trillion economy. In 2025 the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector grew 17.4%, the standout sectoral performer, and supported about 950 000 jobs, adding some 30 000 in the fourth quarter alone.

Source: Statistics South Africa; Department of Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development, Economic Review of South African Agriculture 2025. Figures paraphrased.

Where the value sits

The gross value of South African agricultural production is dominated by animal products (41.3%), followed by horticulture (31.5%) and field crops (27.2%), with maize alone contributing about 14.5%. Exports are geographically diversified but still skewed toward the rest of Africa, underscoring the regional, food-security nature of demand that TerraVanta is positioned to serve.

3.2 Grain storage — a scarce, concentrated asset base

South Africa’s commercial grain-storage system is one of the most developed on the continent, with total capacity of roughly 17 million tonnes across all grains and oilseeds and maize storage of about 16.3 million tonnes. Industry data (Agbiz Grain; SA Grain) indicate some 432 silos nationally, around 260 commercial, with the commercial base owned by only 17 parties. Critically, the three largest owners control approximately 73% of national capacity. This concentration is the strategic opening for a well-capitalised, technology-led independent: storage economics are proven and annuity-like, yet capacity is tightly held and ageing in places.

3.3 The agricultural finance gap

The single largest structural opportunity is finance. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the agri-SME financing gap is estimated at US$74.5 billion per year, with about 83% of demand unmet; agri-SMEs require close to US$90 billion annually but receive only US$15–20 billion in formal financing. The IFC estimates US$117 billion of unmet need once smallholders are included, and separate estimates put the smallholder financial-services shortfall at around US$170 billion annually. Formal commercial lenders reach only about 5% of demand. Development finance is mobilising, the African Development Bank has announced a US$500 million facility intended to unlock US$10 billion, but the gap remains vast.

3.4 Addressable market

We frame TerraVanta’s opportunity as a conventional TAM–SAM–SOM funnel, sized from the indicators above and focused on the Phase-1 Southern African footprint. The total value chain across the region is large; the serviceable market relevant to the Group’s divisions, grain handling, mechanisation, inputs and agri-finance, is a substantial subset; and the Group’s Year-5 obtainable share is a disciplined fraction of that.

At roughly US$850m of Year-5 revenue, TerraVanta would capture only a low-single-digit share of its serviceable market — a deliberately conservative penetration that leaves ample headroom for the Phase-2 and Phase-3 expansion beyond this plan. These figures are illustrative, constructed from the public indicators cited above to frame scale rather than to forecast market share, and should be read alongside the assumptions in Section 15.