Reliance Retail to buy fruits , veggies from abroad

Reliance Retail is looking at international sourcing bases. It may start with setting up a sourcing base for fruit and vegetables in Mexico, and then move to other parts of Central America, including Honduras, for procurement. Finally, it wants to have such bases worldwide, including in China and Vietnam. It is a shift in the company’s procurement strategy, which went awry when its plan to procure food items mainly from the Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh made no headway. The failure was because the Mayawati government of the state went back on its decision to allow organised retailers to procure directly from the farmer.The company now depends on Rajasthan and Punjab for supplies.
Officially, Reliance Retail won’t say how much it wants to spend on buying green grocery and fruit from Central American markets or the cost of setting up such bases there. Unofficially, a Reliance executive said the invest ment could be up to Rs 5,000 crore. It has begun negotiations with a few food suppliers in Mexico. The irrigated northeast area of Mexico is one of the biggest exporters of food products in the world. Most of its exports head for the US. The crops mainly produced in the belt include oranges, apples, table grapes, tangerines, grapefruit, pears, raisins, bananas, mangoes, lemons, limes, watermelons, peaches, nectarines, plums, avocados, pineapples and strawberries.
The company operates more than 700 stores in the country in different formats such as food and grocery, consumer durables, footwear, jewellery, stationery and apparel.