From Egypt to Pakistan, Coke and Pepsi boycott over Gaza lifts local sodas 

From Egypt to Pakistan, Coke and Pepsi boycott over Gaza lifts local sodas 
A worker pushes a wood pilot loaded with packs of Cola Next at a warehouse in Karachi, Pakistan on May 9, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 04 September 2024
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From Egypt to Pakistan, Coke and Pepsi boycott over Gaza lifts local sodas 

From Egypt to Pakistan, Coke and Pepsi boycott over Gaza lifts local sodas 
  • In Pakistan, local colas like Cola Next and Pakola soared in popularity to become about 12% of soft drinks category from 2.5% previously 
  • Cola Next’s factories cannot meet the sharp surge in demand, CEO of brand’s parent company Mezan Beverages said in an interview 

KARACHI/CAIRO/NEW YORK: Coca-Cola and rival PepsiCo. spent hundreds of millions of dollars over decades building demand for their soft drinks in Muslim-majority countries including Egypt to Pakistan. 
Now, both face a challenge from local sodas in those countries due to consumer boycotts that target the globe-straddling brands as symbols of America, and by extension Israel, at a time of war in Gaza.
In Egypt, sales of Coke have cratered this year, while local brand V7 exported three times as many bottles of its own cola in the Middle East and the wider region than last year. In Bangladesh, an outcry forced Coca-Cola to cancel an ad campaign against the boycott. And across the Middle East, Pepsi’s rapid growth evaporated after the Gaza war started in October.
Pakistani corporate executive Sunbal Hassan kept Coke and Pepsi off her wedding menu in Karachi in April. She said she didn’t want to feel her money had reached the tax coffers of the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally.
“With the boycott, one can play a part by not contributing to those funds,” Hassan said. Instead, she served her wedding guests Pakistani brand Cola Next.




An Egyptian walks next to the bottles of Coca-Cola and other products on shelves, in Cairo, Egypt, on August 27, 2024. (REUTERS)

She is not alone. While market analysts say it is hard to put a dollar figure on lost sales and PepsiCo. and Coca-Cola still have growing businesses in several countries in the Middle East, Western beverage brands suffered a 7 percent sales decline in the first half of the year across the region, market researcher NielsenIQ says.




An Egyptian supermarket owner shows bottles of Egypt's local beverage brands Spiro Spathis and Diva Masr at his store, in Cairo, Egypt on September 1, 2024. (REUTERS)

In Pakistan, Krave Mart, a leading delivery app, has seen local cola rivals like Cola Next and Pakola soar in popularity to become about 12 percent of the soft drinks category, founder Kassim Shroff told Reuters this month. Before the boycott, the figure was closer to 2.5 percent.
Shroff said Pakola, which is ice-cream soda flavored, made up most of the purchases before the boycott. He declined to provide figures for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. sales.
Consumer boycotts date back at least as far as an 18th century anti-slavery sugar protest in Britain. The strategy was used in the 20th century to fight apartheid in South Africa and has been widely wielded against Israel through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.




A Pepsi refrigerator is seen at a local corner store with Pepsi and its drinks displayed for sale in Isa Town, Bahrain, August on 30, 2024. (REUTERS)

Many consumers shunning Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. cite US support of Israel over decades, including in the current, ongoing war with Hamas. “Some consumers are deciding to make different options in their purchases because of the political perception,” PepsiCo. CEO Ramon Laguarta told Reuters in a July 11 interview, adding that boycotts are “impacting those particular geographies” such as Lebanon, Pakistan and Egypt.
“We will manage through it over time,” he said. “It’s not meaningful to our top line and bottom line at this point.”
PepsiCo’s total revenue from its Africa, Middle East and South Asia division was $6 billion in 2023, earnings releases show. The same year, Coca-Cola’s revenue from its Europe, Middle East and Africa region was $8 billion, company filings show.
In the six months following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the invasion of Gaza, PepsiCo. beverage volumes in the Africa, Middle East and South Asia division barely grew, after notching up 8 percent and 15 percent growth in the same quarters of 2022/23, the company said. Volumes of Coke sold in Egypt declined by double-digit percentage points in the six months ended June 28, according to data from Coca-Cola HBC, which bottles there. In the same period last year, volumes rose in high single digits.
Coca-Cola has said it does not fund military operations in Israel or any country. In response to a Reuters request, PepsiCo. said neither the company “nor any of our brands are affiliated with any government or military in the conflict.”
Palestinian-American businessman Zahi Khouri founded Ramallah-based Coca-Cola bottler National Beverage Company, which sells Coke in the West Bank. The company’s $25 million plant in Gaza, opened in 2016, has been destroyed in the war, he said. Employees were unharmed, he said.
Khouri said boycotts were a matter of personal choice but didn’t really help Palestinians. In the West Bank itself, he said, they had limited sales impact.
“Only ending the occupation would help the situation,” said Khouri, who supports the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Israel’s government did not respond to a request for comment.
HISTORICAL TARGETS
The big soda companies are no stranger to pressure among the Muslim world’s hundreds of millions of consumers. After Coke opened a factory in Israel in the 1960s, it was hit by an Arab League boycott that lasted until the early 1990s and benefited Pepsi for years in the Middle East.
Coke still lags Pepsi’s market share in Egypt and Pakistan, according to market research firm GlobalData.
PepsiCo, which entered Israel in the early 1990s, itself faced boycotts when it purchased Israel’s SodaStream for $3.2 billion in 2018.
In recent years though, Muslim-majority countries with young, rising populations have provided some of the soda giants’ fastest growth. In Pakistan alone, Coca-Cola says it has invested $1 billion since 2008, yielding years of double-digit sales growth. PepsiCo. had similar gains, according to securities filings.
Now, both are losing ground to local brands.
Cola Next, which is cheaper than Coke and Pepsi, changed its ad slogan in March to “Because Cola Next is Pakistani,” emphasizing its local roots.
Cola Next’s factories cannot meet the surge in demand, Mian Zulfiqar Ahmed, the CEO of the brand’s parent company, Mezan Beverages, said in an interview. He declined to share volume figures.




Zulfiqar Ahmed, CEO of Mezan Beverages (Pvt) Ltd, that makes Cola NEXT, speaks with Reuters during an interview at his office in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 3, 2024. (REUTERS)

Restaurants, Karachi’s private schools association and university students have all taken part in anti-Coca-Cola actions, eroding goodwill built through sponsorship of Coke Studio, a popular music show in Pakistan.
Exports of Egyptian cola V7 have tripled this year compared to 2023, founder Mohamed Nour said in an interview. Nour, a former Coca-Cola executive who left the company after 28 years in 2020, said V7 was now sold in 21 countries.
Sales in Egypt, where the product has only been available since July 2023, were up 40 percent, Nour said.
Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, warned of long-term damage to consumer loyalty due to boycotts. “If you break habits, it’s going to be harder to win you back in the long run,” he said, without giving an estimate of the financial cost to the companies.
BANGLADESH BACKFIRE
In Bangladesh, Coke launched advertising showing a shopkeeper talking about the company’s operations in Palestine.
After a public outcry over perceived insensitivity, Coke pulled the ad in June and apologized. In response to a question from Reuters, the company said the campaign “missed the mark.”
The ad made the boycott worse, said one Bangladeshi advertising executive, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Other American brands seen as symbols of Western culture, such as McDonalds and Starbucks, also face anti-Israel boycotts.
Market share for global brands fell 4 percent in the first half of 2024 in the Middle East, according to NielsenIQ. But the protests have been more visible against the widely-available sodas.
As well as boycotts, inflation and economic turmoil in Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh eroded consumers’ buying power even before the war, making cheaper local brands more appealing.
Last year, Coke’s market share in the consumer sector in Pakistan fell to 5.7 percent from 6.3 percent in 2022, according to GlobalData, while Pepsi’s fell to 10.4 percent from 10.8 percent.
FUTURE PLANS
Coca-Cola and its bottlers, and PepsiCo, still see the countries as important areas for growth, particularly as Western markets slow down.
Despite the boycotts, Coke invested another $22 million upgrading technology in Pakistan in April, it said in a press release at the time.
Coca-Cola’s bottler in Pakistan said to investors in May that it remained “positive about the opportunity” the world’s fifth most-populous country offers, and that it invested in the market with a long-term commitment.
In recent weeks, PepsiCo. reintroduced a brand called Teem soda, traditionally lemon-lime flavored, in Pakistani market, a spokesperson confirmed. The product is now available in a cola flavor with “Made in Pakistan” printed prominently on the label.




A view of a passenger bus with an advertisement of TEEM soft drink moves along a road in Karachi, Pakistan on September 1, 2024. (REUTERS)

The companies are also still injecting the Coke and Pepsi brands into the fabric of local communities by sponsoring charities, musicians and cricket teams.
Those moves are key to Coke and Pepsi keeping a toehold in the countries long-term even as they face setbacks now, Georgetown’s Musgrave said.
“Anything you can do to make yourself an ally or presence, a part of a community,” helps, he said.


Pakistan confirms fifth case of mpox virus

Pakistan confirms fifth case of mpox virus
Updated 9 sec ago
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Pakistan confirms fifth case of mpox virus

Pakistan confirms fifth case of mpox virus
  • Patient hails from Lower Dir in northwest Pakistan and has history of traveling to Gulf countries
  • Health authorities had earlier declared Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province mpox free on September 8 

KARACHI: Pakistani health authorities confirmed a fifth case of the mpox virus in the country on Wednesday, identifying the patient as a resident of the northwestern district of Lower Dir who had been isolated at home after displaying symptoms of the disease and testing positively for it.

The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency over the spread of a new mutated strain of mpox named clade I, which first emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has since spread to several countries, leading to increased monitoring and preventive measures worldwide.

Since it confirmed its first mpox case last month, Pakistan has implemented stringent screening protocols at all airports and border entry points. 

“The fifth case of mpox reported in Pakistan,” the health ministry spokesperson in a statement said on Wednesday. “The citizen belongs to Lower Dir and has travel history from Gulf countries.”

The statement said the patient was referred for testing by the health department of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province based on symptoms he displayed during screening at the airport. He was now isolating at home, the ministry said. 

Dr. Mukhtar Bhart, the Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Health, said the federal ministry of health was working closely with provincial authorities to monitor new cases. 

Patients who contract mpox get flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. Mpox is usually mild but can kill, and children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complications from the infection.

Earlier this week, health authorities had declared Pakistan’s KP province mpox-free after all four patients previously infected with the virus recovered.


Ex-PM Imran Khan’s party announces boycott of parliament pending investigation into arrests of MPs

Ex-PM Imran Khan’s party announces boycott of parliament pending investigation into arrests of MPs
Updated 9 min 13 sec ago
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Ex-PM Imran Khan’s party announces boycott of parliament pending investigation into arrests of MPs

Ex-PM Imran Khan’s party announces boycott of parliament pending investigation into arrests of MPs
  • Pakistani police arrested several PTI MPs on Monday evening, the party says they were arrested from inside parliament 
  • Information minister Ataullah Tarar says video evidence showed lawmakers were not taken from inside National Assembly

ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said on Wednesday Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party lawmakers who were detained on Monday night had not been taken into custody from inside the National Assembly building, as the PTI announced a boycott of parliamentary sessions pending an inquiry into the circumstances of the arrests. 

Pakistani police arrested several lawmakers and leaders of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party in late night raids on Monday and early Tuesday after it held a rally in the capital on Sunday to demand his release. The PTI says a number of the MPs were detained while they were inside the parliament building. National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has opened an inquiry into the arrests as under Pakistani law, lawmakers cannot be arrested from within the precincts of parliament without the speaker’s permission.

Sunday’s PTI rally was mostly peaceful, but there were clashes between police and some PTI supporters en route to the rally venue, in which one police officer was injured. The rally also went on longer than the 7pm deadline given by the district administration, a violation under the recently passed Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, 2024, which allows authorities to set time limits for public gatherings and designate special areas to hold them. The Islamabad administration had allowed the PTI to hold Sunday’s rally from 4pm till 7pm but the gathering went on until nearly 11pm.

Police have said the PTI MPs have been detained over violations of the new law.

“Some evidence came forward that no one was picked up from inside the House,” Tarar, the federal government’s spokesperson, said while addressing the National Assembly session on Wednesday. “The video evidence is available showing recording at the pickets outside.”

However, Tarar also added that the government would back the National Assembly speaker’s decision to open an investigation into the arrests.

PTI leaders rejected Tarar’s statement, with Chairman Gohar saying masked men had used walkie-talkies to communicate the movements of PTI party leaders inside parliament before escorting them to the main gate. 

“Masked men came [inside], they opened all the doors. Who had the keys to open the doors? Who switched off the lights?” Gohar, who was arrested on Monday night but released on Tuesday, said.

He said the PTI would boycott parliamentary sessions until it was “satisfied” with the results of an inquiry into the arrests. 

“We will not even come to your committees. This is our protest.” 

Gohar also requested the house that the arrested PTI MNAs be produced in the ongoing session of the National Assembly today, Wednesday: 

“This was your order and is the minimum you should do.”

The PTI says it has faced an over year-long crackdown since protesters allegedly linked to the party attacked and damaged government and military installations on May 9, 2023, after Khan’s brief arrest that day in a land graft case. Hundreds of PTI followers and leaders were arrested following the riots and many remain behind bars as they await trial. The military, which says Khan and his party were behind the attacks, has also initiated army court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence.

The party says it was not allowed to campaign freely ahead of the Feb. 9 general election, a vote marred by a mobile Internet shutdown on election day and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations that it was rigged and drawing concern from rights groups and foreign governments.

The PTI says it won the most seats, but its mandate was “stolen” by PM Shebaz Sharif’s coalition government which formed the government with the backing of the all-powerful military. Both deny the claim.

Khan, jailed since last August, was ousted from the PM’s office in 2022 in a parliamentary vote of no confidence after what is widely believed to be a falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military, which denies being involved in politics. Since his removal, Khan and his party have waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military and now the PTI is aiming to mobilize the public through public rallies to call for their leader’s release from jail in “politically motivated” cases. 

The ex-PM faces a slew of legal charges and was convicted in four cases since he was first taken into custody, all of which have been either suspended or overturned by the courts. He remains in jail, however, on new charges brought by Pakistan’s national accountability watchdog regarding the illegal sale of gifts from a state repository while Khan was prime minister from 2018 to 2022.


Pakistan launches ‘massive’ crackdown against smuggling along border with Iran

Pakistan launches ‘massive’ crackdown against smuggling along border with Iran
Updated 11 September 2024
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Pakistan launches ‘massive’ crackdown against smuggling along border with Iran

Pakistan launches ‘massive’ crackdown against smuggling along border with Iran
  • Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association says up to 35 percent diesel sold in Pakistan arrives illegally from Iran 
  • Energy ministry says 4,000 tons a day of smuggled fuel causing monthly revenue loss of Rs10.2 billion 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday announced it had launched a “massive” crackdown on smuggling along its porous border with Iran, as its illicit economy continues to pose a major economic and security challenge for the country.

Experts say the illicit economy in Pakistan relies on collusion among Pakistan’s law enforcement institutions, political elites, and criminal and militant networks operating in the border regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.

In May last year, an association of petroleum dealers flagged a surge in the smuggling of Iranian fuel to Pakistan, saying that up to 35 percent of diesel sold in the South Asian country had arrived illegally from Iran. The association said in the past, the smuggling of fuel was limited to the Pakistani province of Balochistan, but that it had now spread to the rest of the country.

In April, Pakistan’s energy ministry asked security forces to clamp down on fuel smuggling from Iran, according to an official memo, which said diesel sales had slumped “more than 40 percent” due to smuggled products.

Pakistan mostly meets its demand for fuel from the Middle East, but it is also smuggled in through its western border with Iran.

“The federal government has launched a massive crackdown against smuggling in line with its efforts to further strengthen economy,” state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday. 

“According to latest statistics, 126.4 metric tons of sugar, 4 metric tons flour, 3252 sticks of cigarettes, and approximately one million liters of Iranian oil were seized by the relevant departments during the first week of this month. The concerned departments are committed to continue their operations to prevent smuggling.”

The country is facing an acute balance of payment crisis and undertaking several measures, including raising fuel prices, to get clearance for a $7 billion International Monetary Fund bailout signed in July. 

The energy ministry said last year according to the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), around 4,000 tons per day of fuel smuggled into Pakistan was causing a total revenue loss of around 10.2 billion rupees a month.

Pakistan’s government has also ordered a clampdown on smuggling of flour, wheat, sugar and fertilizer to Afghanistan.


Parts of Pakistan rattled by 5.7 magnitude quake, no immediate reports of damage

Parts of Pakistan rattled by 5.7 magnitude quake, no immediate reports of damage
Updated 11 September 2024
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Parts of Pakistan rattled by 5.7 magnitude quake, no immediate reports of damage

Parts of Pakistan rattled by 5.7 magnitude quake, no immediate reports of damage
  • Tremors felt in capital, northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and eastern Punjab provinces
  • 7.6 magnitude quake northeast of Islamabad killed at least 73,000 people in 2005

ISLAMABAD: A 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck parts of Pakistan on Wednesday, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in a statement, with no immediate reports of damage.

The epicenter of the earthquake was Dera Ghazi Khan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and the depth was 10 kilometers. 

“PDMA received preliminary reports about the earthquake from all districts of Punjab [province],” it said in a statement. “Earthquake tremors felt in other areas of Punjab including [provincial capital] Lahore.”

The quake also shook buildings in the capital, Islamabad. Local media reports said tremors were felt in the cities of Lahore, Islamabad, Mianwali, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Sargodha, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwat, Swat, North Waziristan, Hangu, Mardan and Malakand, among others. 

The PDM did not report any damage, nor did authorities in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

“Administration across Punjab is busy checking buildings,” PDM said, adding that district emergency centers were on high alert. “Machinery and staff have been put on alert to deal with the aftershocks of the earthquake.”

A 7.6 magnitude quake northeast of Islamabad killed at least 73,000 people in 2005. The quake also rocked Indian-administered Kashmir, killing 1,244 there. 

In 2013, twin earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 6.8 magnitude, rattled Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, killing at least 825 people.


Police sit-in against ‘army presence’ in Pakistani northwestern district enters third day

Police sit-in against ‘army presence’ in Pakistani northwestern district enters third day
Updated 11 September 2024
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Police sit-in against ‘army presence’ in Pakistani northwestern district enters third day

Police sit-in against ‘army presence’ in Pakistani northwestern district enters third day
  • Lakki Marwat police demand “army should withdraw from district and police should be given back their full powers”
  • At least 75 policemen have been killed in ambushes and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year, as per police data

Dera Ismail Khan: A sit-in by police in the northwestern Pakistani district of Lakki Marwat entered a third day, police said on Wednesday, as protesters demanded the military withdraw from the region and hand over “full powers” to civilian law enforcers.

The Pakistan army has a heavy presence in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, where it has been battling militants from the Al-Qaeda, Pakistani Taliban and other groups for nearly two decades. 

There have been protests in several districts of KP since July, when Pakistan’s cabinet announced that a new military operation would be launched amid a surge in terror attacks across the country. People in the northwestern region have rejected plans for an armed operation and demand that civilian agencies like the provincial police and the counter-terrorism department be better equipped. 

“Lakki Marwat police sit-in protest against Pakistani army continues for the third day in intense heat at Taja Chowk,” district police said in a statement to media, saying the Peshawar-Karachi Indus Highway had been completely closed for all types of vehicular traffic for 72 hours. 

“Police only have one demand and a one point agenda that the army should withdraw from the district and police should be given back their full powers.”

The sit-in by policemen, who have been joined by representatives of civil society and political parties as well as tribal elders and members of the public, comes days after unidentified gunmen attacked a police van in Lakki Marwat, killing an officer. Two brothers of a serving police man in Lakki Marwat were also gunned down last week. Similar protests were also held in KP’s Bannu district in July. 

Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks in recent weeks, with many of them taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where groups like the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, have stepped up attacks, daily targeting security forces convoys and check posts, and carrying out targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.

At least 75 policemen have been killed in ambushes and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024, according to police data. 

The volatile Lakki Marwat district is located on the edge of Pakistan’s restive tribal regions that border Afghanistan, from where Islamabad says militants mainly associated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan frequently launch attacks, targeting police and other security forces. Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers of facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges.