Spearheading agri-growth

The new centres in the southeast Asian nation will facilitate more export to the countries the Group is present in.

The UAE-based LuLu Group is exploring new markets in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to further expand its pres­ence across India.

Recently, the UP government has allotted 20 acres of land in Greater Noida to LuLu Group for setting up a state-of-the-art agri-produce sourc­ing, processing, packaging and logistics centre. LuLu, which has already invested nearly INR 2,000 crore in setting up one of the biggest shop­ping malls in Lucknow, is expected to invest an­other INR 200 crore for setting up the new op­erations in Noida. This new facility will export a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to various countries around the world, thus creating a bigger market for agri-produce of North India.

"Our LuLu Mall project in Lucknow, which is getting ready for inauguration very soon, will sure­ly bring world-class shopping and leisure experi­ence to the residents and tourists in UP and nearby states apart from generating direct and indirect employment for more than 20,000 youth" said M A Yusuffali, Chairman of LuLu Group.

During a recently concluded UAE-India Food Security Summit 2020, organised by the Consul- General of India, Dubai and the Northern Emir­ates, in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Invest India, LuLu had an­nounced its plan to set up modern food processing and logistics centre in Jammu and Kashmir.

Currently, LuLu imports apples and saffron from Kashmir and this will significantly increase in the coming years. The proposed centre will have most modern food processing and packaging fa­cilities and will also provide employment oppor­tunities to the local youth, according to the com­pany. LuLu has already imported more than 370 tonnes of Kashmiri apples last year.

LuLu mall projects in Bengaluru and Thiruvana­nthapuram are also getting ready for inauguration and will further boost local retail and tourism mar­kets and more employment opportunities. It has also finalised plans to open LuLu Hypermarkets in several districts of Kerala.

"India which is heading towards becoming a US$5 trillion economy under the dynamic leader­ship of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made investments very easy and transparent and as a result more and more global investors and NRIs are coming here" according to Yusuffali.

LuLu Group currently has 198 hypermarkets and supermarkets in the Middle East, India and Far East. The group imports more than INR 3,500 crore worth of fruits and vegetables and other processed food from India, and this is expected to go up in near future.

Apart from India, the group aims to open more than 30 hypermarkets by the end of 2021 in the GCC countries, Egypt and Far East.

"India which is heading towards becoming a US$5 trillion economy under the dynamic leadership of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made investments very easy and transparent and as a result more and more global investors and NRIs are coming here."

M A Yusuffali

Chairman

LuLu Group

 

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