Speaking to the media on the sidelines of State of Maharashtra’s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (SMART) event, Krish Iyer, president and CEO, India operations, said that Walmart will focus on tier-2 cities since they offer the company a good opportunity to service the kirana or small family-run stores, as also enable the sourcing of agri-products from the rural markets.
SMART is a World Bank assisted project to revamp the agricultural value chain in the State with a focus on marginal farmers with small land holdings across 1,000 villages. It will be scaled up to 10,000 villages across the State later on.
Walmart wants to work with the farmers as well, to help them reduce wastage of crops which in turn will lower prices of produce. Additionally, to reduce market intermediaries, the company plans to directly source goods from the farmers.
Iyer added that at the pan-India level, Walmart is planning to launch fifty stores in the next five to seven years, and that each store will require a $10-million investment.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
