Tag: food & drink

How do you tax a factory that doesn’t exist? This seems to be the problem vexing India’s revenue authorities, who have accused UK-based confectioner Cadbury of dodging roughly $46m in bills, by pretending to churn out its famous Dairy Milk chocolates in an entirely imaginary new facility. Continue reading »

By Terrence Edwards of bne

Mongolia is following the footsteps of its largest trading partner, China, whose first western food chain in 1987 was Yum! Brands’ KFC. Now Mongolia’s Tavan Bogd Group has attained franchise rights to the restaurant chain, though the success of fast food in this fast-developing frontier market has so far been mixed. Continue reading »

South African packaging company Nampak is to invest R1.6bn in its bottle and can production, in an ambitious move to grab a bigger chunk of the bottling market from bottling rival Consol and to capitalise on growth in the beverage sector. Continue reading »

Polish farmers have a debt of thanks to the World Trade Organisation – having joined the WTO last year, Polish food exports to Russia soared in 2012 and are likely to continue growing quickly this year.

The Rzeczpospolita newspaper reports on Monday that in the first 11 months of 2012, food sales to Russia rose by 30 per cent compared to the same period in 2011, reaching about $1.3bn. Analysts expect a similar increase in 2013. Continue reading »

So it was the toxic chicken accusations afterall.

Shares in Yum! Brands fell more than 5 per cent in aftermarket trading on Monday after the inanely-punctuated US owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut said China sales fell more than expected. Continue reading »

Most people probably don’t think Spam lunchmeat and Skippy peanut butter make a good pairing.

But Hormel Foods, maker of the canned curiosity, begs to differ. The Minnesota-based company on Thursday said it would acquire the Skippy peanut butter business from Unilever for $700m – the largest deal in the company’s history. Among the rationales for the move? China. Continue reading »

Workers at a fish farm at Zabieniec, 19 December  2006 Polish Christmas traditions include all the usuals such as trees, presents and carols, but there is also a new one – growing protests about the treatment of carp, the main course of most Christmas Eve dinners.

Weeks before Christmas, animal rights groups started a national campaign trying to get people to change their habit of buying live carp. Millions of Poles tote the fatty bottom-dwelling fish home in plastic bags and then pop the fish into the bathtub, where it swims in circles before being killed on December 24. Continue reading »

“Not for all the tea in China,” is a handy way to express extreme unwillingness to do something in the English language – because China is synonymous with tea.

But the way China is latching onto coffee culture these days, China’s relationship with tea may never be the same again. Continue reading »

When, in a traditional Mexican cantina, it’s time for one for the road, drinkers ask for las penúltimas. It’s best not to tempt fate by calling the last drinks las últimas, simply because they might be the last ever.

A similar logic could be applied to Diageo’s efforts to acquire the world’s leading tequila maker, José Cuervo. Both companies have announced that the talks have irretrievably broken down. But some observers are not prepared to accept that the long-running saga is now finally over. Continue reading »

This should be the time to ramp up sales of whisky to South Africa. The country has an expanding middle class and a taste for the drink, as well as a fondness for premium brands.

Instead, Scotch whisky exports to the country are dropping, and it’s domestic producers that are taking market share. Continue reading »

Chileans love their soda so much they just call it “bebida”, or “drink”.

Indeed they glug with such gusto that the Andean country ranks third in the Americas behind Mexico and the US in consumption of fizzy drinks. So many Chilean consumers will be happy to hear that Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Andina, its bottling partner in Chile, plan to pour $1.3bn into Chile by 2016. Continue reading »

It looks like Vijay Mallya may finally have been thrown a lifeline for his embattled Kingfisher Airlines. But will it be enough?

After four long years of discussions, rumours and speculation, Diageo, the world’s largest spirits company, agreed on Friday to buy a 53.4 per cent stake in his flagship United Spirits for more than $2bn. The attraction is obvious: Diageo gains great access to India’s 1.2bn consumers and the world’s biggest whisky market. But for Mallya, the stakes are even higher. Continue reading »

Thailand’s cola market has turned aggressive as the three big industry players get all fizzed up about a fourth drink on the block. With an eye on the proposed dismantling of regional trade barriers by late 2015 under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community, the race is on to gain pole position in the country’s large and growing soft drinks market. Continue reading »

You have to go back as far as 2001 to come across the old Coca-Cola slogan “Life is good”. But that phrase must have been on the minds of Coca-Cola Femsa executives on Thursday as they reported impressive third-quarter results. Continue reading »

Now that peace talks aimed at ending Colombia’s conflict are underway, beyondbrics travelled to the country’s boondocks, to an area where local peasants have been caught in crossfire for over fifty years.

One of the many striking features found in these backwater lands – known for being the cradle of the Farc guerrilla insurgency – is how well Colombian food and beverage companies have been able to distribute their products despite the lack of road infrastructure. Alongside products from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, one could find an abundance of processed food products from the country’s leading food manufacturer, Grupo Nutresa. Continue reading »

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Global equities macromap

Number of the day

-0.2% Fall in Polish retail sales in April, rather worse than 1.1 per cent growth expected.

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