The news: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged Emirati grocery chain LuLu Hypermarket to set up in Australia during a stopover in Abu Dhabi.
The context: Confirming the invitation to LuLu Hypermarket chairman Yusuff Ali in the UAE on Monday evening AEST, Albanese said: “One of the great things about the [LuLu Group] chairman’s company, there are 300 supermarkets just like this one, I have encouraged him to come to Australia as well…We need more competition in the Australian supermarket sector, and we have had a little discussion about that.”
Albanese said there were “different levels of (beef) quality” being imported to the UAE and elsewhere, adding that Australian farmers were attracting big business from overseas importers.
He said that the company is big enough to have direct relations with Australian producers, and that a free trade agreement would remove tariffs on nearly all Australian exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and open up potential investment in Australia from its sovereign wealth funds.
Albanese’s Abu Dhabi pit stop, part of his 11 day trip to New York, London and now the Middle East, coincided with the launch of the Australia-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which was signed in November 2024.
The agreement is set to make almost all Australian exports to the UAE tariff-free, saving Australian companies up to $185 million in the first year, according to The Australian.