Coke and Pepsi bottlers face can shortage
The managers odd Pepsi and Coke bottling plants in the occupied Palestinian territory have raised an alarm that the extended closure of a Jordan border crossing has left both Pepsi and Coke bottlers in the West Bank stranded.
In September, a Jordanian gunman killed three Israeli citizens. This and the general unrest in the Middle East have led to the closure of a major trade crossing at the Allenby Bridge.
Hatim Omari, the manager of a Pepsi, 7up, and Mirinda bottling plant in Palestine and its environs said that sugar and cans used to be transported to bottlers in West Bank from Jordan through the bridge. However, the Pepsi facility in Jericho has been out of cans for soft drinks and has not been able to get new supplies of cans and sugar for over a month.
Imad Hindi, the general manager of National Beverage Company said that a Coke bottler in Ramallah is on the verge of having no soft drinks to sell without his usual supplies. “The cost of doing business in the Palestinian territories is roughly five times greater than in surrounding countries”, he said.
Although the bottlers are facing the heat of the effects of the conflict in the Middle East due to their inability to get supplies, other businesses have been feeling the heat since last year. In fact, many cargo ships in the Red Sea have been rerouted from Asia to Africa due to Houthi attacks.
Paul Musgrave, an Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar laments that, “From Beirut to Iran to Gaza, it’s really hard to just run a normal business and no one is immune to it. You need sugar, you need cans, you need people, you need electricity, and it’s all being disrupted.”
Pepsi’s production of 60 million litres per annum is down by 35%. Although cans have higher margins than bottles, they now have to turn to bottles in the absence of cans. Pepsi, which happens to be the preferred cola in the area, is now in shortage. The sales are dropping due to a lack of supplies. The plant has gone from running three shifts per day to running just one for its 200 employees.
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