Fruit juice, water gain at the expense of colas

With sales of flavoured aerated drinks down nearly 50 per cent in the last two days following traces of pesticides being found in the drinks, packaged drinking water and fruit juice have been flying off the shelves in Kolkata.

The fall in sales after samples were found to have pesticides in New Delhi, The government in West Bengal is yet to publish its findings on existence of impurities in soft drinks from bottling plants in West Bengal.

Also Read Soft drinks, hard truths

N R Goenka, owner of the Coke bottling plant in Kolkata, told Business Standard, that traces of lead and cadmium had nothing to do with traces of pesticides being found in the drink. He said the possibilities was that lead and cadmium were coming into the sludge in the bottle disinfecting stage.

"If the pollution control board asks us to contain the sludge and dispose it in some other way we are ready to do it, but the pesticide scare is already affecting us although no such traces have been yet found in any bottling plants in the state."

Sales of both packaged fruit juice and fresh juice has increased by as much as 30 per cent in the same period. Offtake of mineral water has also seen a quantum jump -- thanks to the pesticide scare.

Coca-Cola has been trying to fight the scare in its own way and has stuck notices on every retail shop denying the allegations made against its products regarding presence of pesticides in the drinks as well as traces of lead and cadmium in the sludge discharged.

This has not cut much ice- almost all shops, restaurants and bars have stopped stocking aerated drinks as well.

"People are drinking more of mineral water and juice to quench their thrust," said the leading roadside vendor of aerated waters in the busy area of Park Street in the heart of the city.

"We used to sell around 10 to 12 cases in a day. In the last couple of days sales have declined by as much as 50 per cent and we managed to sell only around 10 cases in the last couple of days," said another owner from a roadside shop at Dalhouise area -- the commercial hub of the city.

Yet another shop owner at Esplanade said, "The scare had a tremendous effect on softdrink sales specially on cola drinks, but people are still drinking colourless softdrinks but again in lower quantities."

A driver of a Coca Cola truck supplying soft drinks to liquor bars in the city, said, "Demand for Coke and ThumsUp is down by almost 50 per cent.

Demand for soda water on the other hand is on the rise. Bar owners have been ordering more of soda water and less flavoured soft drinks for the last couple of days following the pesticide incident".

N R Goenka, owner of the Coke bottling plant in Kolkata, said that demand for soft drinks was around 8,000 cases per day while demand for packaged drinking water was around 4,000 cases per day from his bottling plant.

"The pesticide incident had its effect on sales, but it will not be before 7 to 8 days before we get to feel the pinch," he explained.

This was because, the bottling plants do not supply directly to the retailer, but through distributors and sub-distributors.

"ThumsUp being 55 per cent of the total sales of all our softdrinks, we will definitely be affected if demand for Coke and ThumsUp decline, but it will take some time before we actually feel the change in demand," he explained.