Coca-Cola says it uses local sugar

Bacolod City — The Coca-Cola Bottling Philippines Inc. has maintained that it gets some of its sugar requirements locally.

In a statement sent Wednesday night, Catherine Avelino, CCBPI corporate communications director, reiterated that the company’s premix importation complied with the provisions of the Tariff Code as well as all international trade agreements that the Philippine government has entered into.

Avelino, however, would not disclose the volume of local sugar the company was using. “We are unable to disclose the amount because that is competitive information,” she explained.

The firm was reacting to a call by sugar groups in Negros Occidental to boycott Coca-Cola products because the company was using imported premixes and high-fructose corn syrup instead of buying locally grown sugar.

Avelino said the proposed boycott of their products would be counter-productive because it would have adverse effects on the lives of thousands of people that depend on CCBPI business in Negros, including small sari-sari store owners, as well as the farmers that the sugar groups were trying to protect.

“As in any business, we need to manage our operations sustainably so we can keep our retail prices at a reasonable level, which the Filipino consumer will benefit from,” she explained.

According to Avelino, the company has been investing in the community through its outreach program, the Little Red Schoolhouse, which brings quality education to children living in remote areas, as well as nutrition for children with iron deficiency through Nutrijuice, an orange drink fortified in iron, zinc, lysine and vitamins A and C eyed to reduce iron deficiency anemia.

“Our commitment to Negros remains,” she said in the company statement.

Sugar planters on Wednesday said they would join Sugar Watch-initiated boycott of Coca-Cola products nationwide if the firm refused to heed their call to stop importing sugar premixes and high fructose corn syrup, and instead use domestically produced sugar.

“This is only the beginning of our protests against Coke, we will take our boycott against its products nationwide,” Sugar Watch convenor Hernane Braza said at a rally at the Bacolod public plaza Wednesday.

The protest spearheaded by Sugar Watch, composed mainly of labor groups and agrarian reform beneficiaries, was joined by the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, and other independent sugar groups.   INQUIRER