Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has invited a Middle Eastern supermarket chain to enter the Australian market, with a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates set to come into force within days.
Mr Albanese made the offer during a stop in Abu Dhabi on Monday where he also toured the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque with his fiancée Jodie Haydon, calling it a “glorious place” and “very humbling”.
The Australia-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which was signed in November last year, comes into effect on Wednesday, and will result in the removal of almost all tariffs from Australian exports to the Arab Gulf state.
Australian produce is the best there is, I want to see it shared with the world.
We’ve been working hard to diversify our trading relationships – on the 1st of October our free trade agreement with UAE kicks in.
It’s fantastic news for Australian producers, workers and for our… pic.twitter.com/k4GKJy7qDN
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 29, 2025
During his trip Mr Albanese visited a LuLu Hypermarket where Australian beef was being sold at lower prices than can be found at majority foreign-owned “local” chains Coles and Woolworths, The Australian reported.
The UAE-based LuLu Group is owned by Indian billionaire MA Yusuff Ali, who joined Mr Albanese at a press conference and also has stores in Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
“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,” Mr Albanese said.
“We need more competition in the Australian supermarket sector, and we have had a little discussion about that.”
Mr Albanese also referred to speaking about “price gouging” from the Coles-Woolworths duopoly during the federal election campaign and wanting to increase competition.
“That’s something that consumers are rightly concerned about. It’s something that my government is taking action on,” he said.
After visiting the grand mosque said it was a “great honour” to be there.
“You get the real feeling when you’re here about the human experience and how humble we are before the glory of God. And it is a beautiful building that has also architecture and art from all around the world. People contributed to make this such a glorious place,” Mr Albanese said.
Header image: Left, Anthony Albanese samples beef. Right, visiting the mosque with Ms Haydon (Prime Minister’s Office).
