The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Lulu Hypermarket LLC to promote the export potential of millets to the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCCs). The MoU was signed on February 21, 2023, and aims to facilitate the promotional activities of millet products and value-added products around the world in association with Lulu Group, which is an international retail hypermarket chain that operates stores and shopping malls across Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, India, and Far East.
The agreement involves Lulu Group facilitating promotional activities for millet products and enabling the country to display millets and its value-added products, ready to eat products in international retail chains by sourcing it from Farmer Producer Organizations, Farmer Producer Companies, women entrepreneurs, and startups. APEDA will facilitate manufacturers to send various samples of millet products to Lulu Hypermarkets, which will be showcased at its various stores. APEDA, in association with Lulu Group, will also provide assistance in labeling of the products in accordance with the requirement of different importing countries.
As part of its series of events for the promotion of International Year of Millets (IYoM) 2023, APEDA is organizing export promotion activities for millets in 16 International Trade Fairs, including Gulfood 2023. India has exported millets worth USD 46.05 million during April-November 2022-23, and the UAE is the major importing country of Indian millets. The signing of the MoU will facilitate APEDA’s strategy to promote the export of millets and its value-added products in West Asian countries to achieve the overall set target of USD 100 million for export of millets and its value-added products by 2025.
The MoU was signed between Dr. Tarun Bajaj, Director APEDA, and Mr. Salim VI, the Chief Operating Officer of Lulu Group in presence of APEDA Chairman Dr. M Angamuthu, Consul General of India Dr. Aman Puri and Mr. M.A. Yusuff Ali, the Chairman & Managing Director of Lulu Group.
APEDA Chairman M Angamuthu said, “It’s a Mission and Vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to promote Millets in the international market. The APEDA team is ready to provide all required help to exporters, millet producers, women FPOs, etc to promote Indian millets across the globe.”
The government is also mobilizing start-ups for export promotion of value-added products in the Ready to Eat (RTE) and Ready to Serve (RTS) category such as noodles, pasta, breakfast cereals mix, biscuits, cookies, snacks, sweets, etc.
As per the DGCIS data, India registered a growth of 8.02% in the export of millets in the financial year 2021-22 as the export of millets was 159,332.16 metric tonne against 147,501.08 metric tonne during the same period last year.
In conclusion, the signing of the MoU between APEDA and Lulu Hypermarket LLC aims to promote the export potential of millets to the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCCs) by facilitating promotional activities of millet products and value-added products around the world. The signing of the MoU is a step forward in achieving the overall set target of USD 100 million for export of millets and its value-added products by 2025. The government is also mobilizing start-ups for export promotion of value-added products in the Ready to Eat (RTE) and Ready to Serve (RTS) category.