Ambassador of Sri Lanka Mohamed Mafaz Mohideen, along with his wife and Dr. Mohamed Althaf, Director of Lulu Group International, cut a ceremonial cake in the presence of other dignitaries to mark the opening of the 'Taste of Sri Lanka' festival at a Lulu hypermarket. Pics: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
Lulu Hypermarket yesterday launched Sri Lankan Festival, offering a wide range of Sri Lankan commodities and agricultural produce at discounted prices. Special counters were set to facilitate tasting and sampling of famous Sri Lankan cuisines by customers.
After a short interval of a couple of years, Lulu Hypermarket has again set the stage for Sri Lankan Festival under the theme ‘Taste of Sri Lanka’ this week from February 6 to 11, 2022.
The festival aims to bring alive the unique culinary heritage of Sri Lanka, which is a blend of many colonial influences — British, Dutch and Portuguese as well as pan-Asian with Indian, especially Southern, and Indonesian influences. Sri Lanka and the Arab world share a rich culinary experience which nurtured the spice trade of olden days and is still a vibrant presence in Arab kitchens today.
Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Qatar H E Mohamed Mafaz Mohideen inaugurated the festival yesterday at Lulu Hypermarket, D-Ring Road branch, in the presence of Director of Lulu Group International Dr. Mohamed Althaf and many other distinguished guests from Banks and Retail/FMCG sectors including a gathering of shoppers and officials from Lulu outlets.
The festival mainly exhibits Sri Lankan ethnic/grocery items and agricultural/organic produce highlights the diverse culture and culinary heritage of Sri Lanka.
The festival offers its shoppers the opportunity to stock up top-quality spices that Sri Lanka is famed for: cloves, pepper, cinnamon, and all packaged for hygiene, aroma and convenience.
There will also be a variety of tea and tea-based herbal infusions with turmeric, chamomile and other herbs and amazing teas from signature plantations around Sri Lanka.
Many varieties of organic and healthy coconut products such as coconut cream, coconut milk and virgin and cold-pressed coconut oil are showcased on the special deals section while the vegetable racks will be bursting with the goodness, colour and juicy flavours of Sri Lankan farm produce.
The Sri Lankan Ambassador and other officials and guests at the launch of the festival.
Addressing to the media, Ambassador said that Lulu is one of the top supermarket brands in the region and World including Qatar offering Sri Lankan foods and non-food items. “Sri Lanka and Lulu have a long-standing relationship as it has an export distribution centre in Sri Lanka for sourcing the goods. The facility provides opportunities to Sri Lankan farmers to market their products,” said the Ambassador.
He said a range of over 350 items imported from Sri Lanka are being sold in Lulu outlets across the country enabling Sri Lankan community in Qatar and other consumers to get the products. “Most of the famous Sri Lankan brands of foods are available at Lulu outlets where Sri Lankan expatriates can buy as per their needs,” said the Ambassador.
He said that apart from the food items, Sri Lankan textile like 'sari' and other cloths are being displayed under the festival which is great addition giving opportunities to another sector to join the market. Speaking about the festival, he said that the festival offers wide range of Sri Lankan products from groceries to supper foods not only to Sri Lankan community but other people in Qatar who want such types of foods.
Director of Lulu Group International Dr. Mohamed Althaf said that Lulu opened its sourcing office in Special Economic Zone at Colombo in Sri Lanka. “Now we are sourcing fresh fruits and vegetable through the facility for Sri Lankan expatriate community in Qatar and other consumers,” said Dr. Althaf.
He said that plans are afoot to add more products — food and non-food items — in the list of export from Sri Lanka. “We enhance the efforts to import more products from Sri Lanka under Lulu plan to diversify its source of import to meet growing demand because of rising population and FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022,” said Dr. Althaf.
He said that Sri Lanka is good from the food security point of view for Qatar as the country has food products similar to those produced in Asian countries. Speaking about the festival, Dr. Althaf said: “The festival offers wide range of Sri Lankan foods and non-food products. First time under the festival we introduced high quality textile products.”
Lulu Group has organised the festival in co-operation with its export unit — YAS Lanka — in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The unit was set up in 2017 with a view to boost sourcing operations and bring in high-quality products for Lulu’s chain of hypermarkets across the world, the statement noted.
