Sri Lankan exporters of avocado, passion fruit vie for supply to high-end supermarkets in Mumbai

Friday, 19 February 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Sri Lanka Consulate General in Mumbai together with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) successfully connected Sri Lankan fresh fruits exporters (avocado and passion fruit) with high-end supermarkets in Mumbai through virtual B2B meetings on 11 February. This was a follow up discussion on the programme launched by the Consulate in September 2020 to promote and diversify Sri Lanka’s Agri products to the Indian Market in line with the Government’s Export Economic Policy.

Twenty online B2B meetings took place between five leading fruit and vegetable exporters from Sri Lanka, namely CR Exports Ltd., Development Interplan Ceylon Ltd., Forbes & Walker Fine Foods Ltd., HJS Condiments Ltd., JAGRO Ltd., and three high-end supermarket chains in India – Nature’s Basket, More Retail, Star Bazzar – Mumbai based fresh fruits importer East West Agro.

The supermarket chains represented at the meetings are high-end consumer product outlets with a reach all over India. Nature’s Basket, which is owned by reputed conglomerate RPSG Group, has over 36 neighbourhood convenience stores in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore with a diverse product portfolio. Star Market, a joint venture by Tata and Tesco companies are present across 48 stores in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Kolhapur and Hyderabad. More Retail, which is the fourth largest supermarket chain in India, is owned by Amazon and Samara Capital Ltd. More Retail offers two types of stores, hypermarts and supermarkets. The company has 22 hypermarts spreading across New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thane and operates 651 supermarkets all over India. East West Agro is a Mumbai based fresh fruit importer which has been engaged in agro product trade for more than a decade.

Both Indian and Sri Lankan participants appreciated the joint effort especially, during the prevailing COVID situation to stimulate more business taking place between the two neighbouring countries. Given the close proximity and the unique duty concessions offered to Sri Lanka for agri products under Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA), Sri Lanka is well positioned to utilise this untapped export potential. In addition to avocado and passion fruit, the Sri Lankan companies have received inquiries on the possibility of exporting other products such as mangoes (during off-season in India), rambutan, soursop, etc. from Sri Lanka.

India imports avocado from Latin America and Europe and passion fruits are imported from South Africa as the local supply of avocado and passion fruits in India are not sufficient to fulfil the local demand.