Sourced $30 billion Indian goods in two decades, Walmart says

Walmart Inc. sourced goods worth about $30 billion from India over the past two decades, the Press Trust of India reported, citing an executive at the US retail giant.

The US retailer, which is hosting its inaugural growth summit in New Delhi, said it is looking to step up exports of Indian goods across categories, including food, health and wellness, apparel, home and toys.

Walmart, which owns Indian online retail giant Flipkart, had earlier set sights on importing up to $10 billion Indian goods annually from 2027.

In a statement this week, the US retailer said its supplier development program, Walmart Vriddhi, has trained more than 50,000 small businesses in India since December 2019.

The program, which provides free training, mentoring and digital tools to help businesses grow, scale and integrate into domestic supply chains, reached the milestone well ahead of schedule, it said in the statement.

“Empowering MSMEs (small businesses) is at the heart of Walmart’s commitment to fostering inclusive economic growth,” Jason Fremstad, senior vice-president, supplier development, Walmart, said.

E-commerce in India is in its early stages with logistics costs being the biggest challenge, Flipkart chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said at the growth summit.

“But the government’s efforts to simplify taxation and promote ease of doing business are significantly contributing to the sector’s growth,” Krishnamurthy said.

“As India advances towards achieving a $5 trillion economy, a substantial portion of this growth will be driven by a competitive and productive MSME sector, serving as a catalyst for economic expansion and job creation. The government actively supports the promotion and development of the MSME sector across all states,” Narayan Rane, minister of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), said.