IKEA eyes Bengal's bamboo, plans $20-bn investment

World's leading and Sweden-based furniture retailer IKEA has decided to make West Bengal a sourcing hub for meeting its requirement for natural fibre and bamboo thereby opening up huge business avenues for bamboo growers across the state, official sources said, elaborating that company’s purchasing operations from India stood at ₹30 billion in the 2017-18 fiscal year and sources around ₹20 billion of natural fibre and bamboo for its furniture. The company has expressed interest in procuring the products from bamboo- and natural fibre-rich Bengal. In this connection it is worth mentioning here that recently, IKEA had written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, expressing interest in setting up one-two stores with investments of over ₹20 billion in the state. Typically, IKEA stores are large as its Hyderabad store is spread across .4 million square feet with a 1,000-seater cafeteria.