Group thumbs down cola plant ‘media tour’

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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
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BACOLOD City – A sugar industry group looked down on the tour at the Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines, Inc. bottling plant in Barangay Mansilingan that the company organized for the media on Friday.

It only proves that the beverage company, highly criticized for preferring high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) over locally produced sugar, is affected by calls for boycott, according to the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines (SAP).

“Exclusive media roundtable and tour of our production plant in Bacolod City on Friday, April 21, 2017 10:30 a.m. Bacolod Plant, Murcia Road, Brgy. Mansilingan, Bacolod City,” read the press invitation from Coca-Cola.

“It will be an honor for us to host you as we showcase our world-class facilities and fully automated production processes, where 100-percent locally sourced sugar is used,” the invite further read.

Panay News did not join the media tour.

Atty. Dino Yulo, a spokesperson for the SAP described the tour as a “belated gesture” to try to prove that Coca-Cola uses locally produced sugar. He believes this also raises questions on earlier claims about Coca-Cola operations.

“It’s been more than a month and a half since we called for a boycott,” Yulo said. “This … tour … just signifies that, despite their denial, they [were] affected by the boycott.”

Several local government units and organizations in Negros Occidental prohibited the consumption of Coke products during festivals and other events.

Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. himself banned Coca-Cola drinks during the Panaad sa Negros Festival, which opens today.

If Coca-Cola can use “100-percent sugar” in its Bacolod plant, it can do the same in all its other production plants, said Yulo.

Unfortunately, the lawyer claimed, the company still uses “a mixture of 90 percent … HFCS and only 10 percent sugar.”

“This also raises doubt on the pronouncement of [Agriculture] secretary Emmanuel Piñol that Coke needs six months to tweak [its] machines for sugar use,” Yulo said. “It took them only a month and a half to do that in their Bacolod plant.”

Until Coca-Cola “turns around and brings something concrete to the table,” he said, “all [its] pronouncements will be doubted and [its] sincerity … questioned.”

A trip to a supermarket will show that Coke beverages sold in Negros Occidental have “HFCS” printed on their bottles, Yulo claimed. “How sure are we that they are true to their claim that it’s pure sugar and nothing more?”

Coca-Cola in the Philippines continues to support the Philippine sugar industry by “remaining to be one of its strongest partners,” the beverage company said in a news release sent to Panay News.

Coca-Cola claimed that its “bottling facility in Negros Occidental … produces beverages with 100-percent locally sourced sugar.”

“The company has maintained this practice since they opened their plant in Bacolod in 1998,” the news release said.

“It is the thrust of Coca-Cola to support the local industries wherever we may be present in the world — and that includes the various stakeholders in and outside our value chain,” the material quoted Atty. Adel Tamano, vice president for public affairs and communications, as saying. “We wish to continue to work with the government and the stakeholders of the local sugar industry to reach a solution to the current situation that is acceptable to all concerned.”

Sugar industry stakeholders called for the boycott of Coca-Cola as they oppose the use and importation of HFCS, an imported alternative sweetener that they claimed undermines locally produced sugar.

A study cited by the Sugar Regulatory Administration and conducted by the University of the Philippines School of Statistics stated that the total local beverage industry, which includes Coca-Cola, uses approximately 40 percent of the total Philippine domestic sugar production, the news release said.

As such, Coca-Cola remains a committed partner of the local sugar industry and one of the main purchasers of local sugar, it said./PN

 

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