The agreement was concluded on Thursday following Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena’s efforts to promote the branding and export of the region’s geographically indicated ‘Raktsey Karpo’ and ‘Halman’ apricot varieties.
The MoU was signed by Secretary of Horticulture Bhupesh Chaudhary and Lulu Retail’s Group Director Salim MA, in the presence of LG Saxena. It was facilitated through the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority and the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
According to the agreement, Lulu International will procure a minimum of 1,000 metric tonnes of apricots from farmers in Ladakh and oversee all stages including plucking, sorting, processing, packaging, transportation, and international marketing.
At the signing ceremony, LG VK Saxena described the MoU as ‘historic,’ emphasising that it will provide direct economic benefits to farmers by reducing losses and ensuring fair pricing. He stated that the initiative would contribute to strengthening Ladakh’s identity and recognition in global markets.
Highlighting previous challenges, he noted that traditional processing and packaging methods had resulted in significant losses to farmers. The new collaboration aims to resolve these issues and increase value addition.
