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Meet Sudhakar Tomar, a self-made entrepreneur
Gulf News
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2/12/2025
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Sudhakar Tomar: The farmer’s son who became an agricultural businessman here in the UAE
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00:00
My father was a farmer in a rural part of Uttar Pradesh, in a district called Hardoi.
00:10
So that is about 200 kilometers from the capital Lucknow.
00:15
And when the farming became a little bit tough for him, he had to take up a job with the state police force.
00:24
And because he was required to go to different cities or different places,
00:30
since the age of four I traveled with him all the time.
00:33
So those early, I would say, nomadic years made me quite independent.
00:41
Also, the ability to connect with different people at the level,
00:48
and a will to survive and not to fend for yourself if you are independent from such an early age.
00:56
Then I did my graduation from University of Lucknow.
01:02
I studied geology and plant sciences. I did my summer training with Aditya Birla group.
01:13
And I think they liked my work, so they offered me a job when I finished my MBA at the age of about 20-something.
01:20
And in 1995, I was sent to Dubai to open an office for them.
01:27
I opened an office for them in Jebel Ali Free Zone, also in Syria and Turkey.
01:31
And then in 1996, together with my longtime friends and partners,
01:37
between 1996 and 1997, we started Hakanegro DMCC.
01:43
The value system which I would think, which has helped me at least,
01:49
is that no matter your situation or your position, whether you're employed or you're working for yourself,
01:58
you should have an entrepreneurial mind.
02:01
That means that whatever the job or the task has been assigned to you,
02:06
you should do as if you own that entity and do with your best efforts and with bona fide intentions.
02:15
So these things are true for an entrepreneur or even for an employee or even for a student or anyone.
02:21
I have a friend, he has a very famous quote. He says,
02:24
success is when opportunity meets preparation.
02:28
So if you keep yourself updated on the latest trends which are happening in the industry,
02:35
and if you're ready for what I call in terms of software,
02:42
like if you have relevant skills, you are in a particular place,
02:46
then at the first opportunity which comes your way, you'll be ready to capitalize that.
02:51
And this is so true in today's environment because the speed is so fast
02:58
that unless you capitalize on the first opportunity which is given to you, you'll not succeed.
03:04
So I think I was a bit proactive in getting the opportunity and whatever little bit task was given to me
03:11
early on right from the time of my summer training to the management training,
03:15
we do with the best of the intentions and the hard work which was required.
03:21
So probably that's something which helped me.
03:23
So because I was traveling with my father, so many places, many villages or the place where he was posted,
03:29
there were not good schools. So it was kind of like learning more on the street,
03:35
which makes you independent, which gives you life skills.
03:39
But in my case, it gave me an extra advantage that I could finish my college at a very early age.
03:45
So the amount of years I've been working, probably I can retire now.
03:49
My dad was not very well educated, but one thing which he taught me,
03:55
because he had immense love for the languages and the books.
04:00
So the number of books and the languages I learned from him and the passion about the art and literature,
04:08
I think that is very important. So you need not be a very highly educated person,
04:14
as long as you have a will to learn something new on a daily basis,
04:18
and you strive to do that in your life, I think that is good for everyone.
04:23
So in 1997, when we started the company, it was a small setup.
04:30
So we scanned the market. We looked at the market gaps, what is the value we can provide as a company.
04:42
And then we made an objective and a mandate for ourselves that we are in a value creation business,
04:50
value not only in terms of monetary, but also in terms of right business practices,
04:55
and getting the benefits to all the stakeholders in the food system supply chain.
05:01
So on that principle we worked, and now we have operations in 30 countries.
05:08
As a homegrown multinational, we do business of more than 5 million tons of physical agricultural commodities.
05:16
One thing I must say that Dubai as a place, and DMCC as a host for our kind of business,
05:24
has been tremendous support. So our skill set got matched by the perfect infrastructure,
05:33
and the excellent support from all our partners, suppliers, buyers, banks,
05:40
all the third parties who were involved in our business. So the place has been very good for us.
05:45
It would be very difficult to imagine this kind of success had we been in any other place.
05:52
The kind of enabling environment which Dubai provides, and DMCC in particular, has been very beneficial for our growth.
06:01
As a group level, just to give you a nutshell, with Dubai being the head office and operations in 30 countries,
06:12
we physically supply close to 5 million tons of agricultural commodities,
06:18
coming from 55 countries, including 30 of our own operations,
06:24
going to more than 1,000 customers in 104 countries, gives us a top line of close to a group level of about $2 billion.
06:31
We are a principal business, that means we physically either grow, or we buy from the farmers,
06:37
or we buy from the institutions, and we supply to processing plants, or the factories, or the buyers.
06:43
So we have the whole company divided into many divisions, so when I say agricultural product,
06:51
that means grains, cereals, dairy products, pulses, animal feed,
06:58
so basically the raw materials which go into processing for making holistic food.
07:03
The biggest challenge in our industry is the geopolitical stress.
07:09
So you have to vary, because you are operating in 150 countries,
07:12
so any geopolitical stress, any regulatory tension has a potential to affect the food business,
07:20
because at the end of the day, food is a socio-political economic commodity.
07:26
So not only are you dealing with the goods, but also you have to monitor the macro environment surrounding the business.
07:35
So we are very conscious of the fact that other than economic activity,
07:38
which of course makes money for the organization and for an individual,
07:44
I strongly believe that, because I'm from the food industry, so I'm going to give an example only the food industry,
07:52
very strongly believe that unless all the components of the food systems are efficiently working,
08:02
for example we are working a lot of projects in India,
08:07
where 68% or 70% of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture.
08:15
But it contributes only 16 or 17% to national GDP.
08:22
And this is unsustainable, this cannot continue for a long time.
08:26
So we are making an effort where the farmers should get more money,
08:32
and at the same time, consumers should also pay less price.
08:35
And the only way this can happen is when you shrink the supply chain,
08:39
and manage efficiently your food systems delivery process.
08:45
So I don't think that those days are far away when you can actually, on your phone,
08:51
you can order your produce directly from the farmer.
08:54
So we are spending a great deal of efforts in making sure that the farmers get the right price for the produce.
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