Tamil Nadu: Traders ban Pepsi, Coca-Cola to support local
products
01 Mar 2017
Traders
in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have banned the sale of Coca-Cola
and Pepsi in favor of local products. The associations say that soft drinks
firms take too much water from rivers, leaving farmers struggling to irrigate
their land at a time of severe drought. "Drinks like Pepsi and Coca-Cola
are not good for your health because of their high sugar and chemical content.
We are promoting Indian soft drinks, and will encourage better sales of fruit
juices." The Indian Beverage
Association (IBA) said the ban "was against the proven fundamentals of
robust economic growth.” More than a million shopkeepers are expected to comply
with the ban. Pepsi and Coca-Cola have not commented on the ban.
Coca-Cola opens its first plant in Burma for 60 years
04 Jun 2013
Coca-Cola has opened
a bottling plant in Burma - the first time it has had a production facility
there for more than 60 years. The world's largest soft-drink maker is one of
the first US firms to invest in Burma following Washington's decision to
suspend sanctions against the country. Coca-Cola has pledged to invest $200
million, and create thousands of jobs. There are now only two countries where
the company does not do business. It left Cuba after the revolution, when Fidel
Castro's government began seizing private assets, and it has never operated in
North Korea.
In
which countries is Coca-Cola not sold?
11 Sep 2012
After almost 60
years, Coca-Cola is on sale again in Burma. It's one of the world's most
recognized brands, so are there any countries where the drinks giant still
remains unsold? There are now just two countries in the world where Coca-Cola
cannot be bought or sold - at least, not officially. They are Cuba and North
Korea, which are both under long-term US trade embargoes (Cuba since 1962 and
North Korea since 1950).
Coca-Cola's entry
into any country is a powerful symbol, says Tom Standage, author of A History
of the World in Six Glasses. "Coca-Cola is the nearest thing to capitalism
in a bottle.” Not all countries have embraced the American-ness that seems to
be embodied by Coca-Cola. It was the French who first coined the pejorative
term "coca-colonization" in the 1950s. Trucks were overturned and
bottles smashed as protesters saw the drink as a threat to French society. During
the Cold War, Coca-Cola became a symbol of capitalism and a fault-line between
capitalism and communism.
In 2003, protesters
in Thailand poured Coca-Cola onto the streets as a demonstration against the
US-led invasion of Iraq, and sales were temporarily suspended. Iran's president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened to ban Coca-Cola and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez
recently urged people to drink locally-made fruit juice rather than drink
Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
Coca Cola announced plans to invest a record $4 billion in
China between 2012 and 2014. It is the company's biggest ever China investment
following the $2 billion it invested in the country in 2009.
