Beverage giant Coca-Cola is investing in its Indian operations in the hope of procuring more fruit from the South Asian nation, according toLive Mint.
The US-headquartered company recently launched its Circular Economy initiative, which will see it play an active role in the entire sourcing supply chain of fruits from India.
“We will be making interventions across the value chain starting from the farm-gate,” Coca-Cola said in a statement.
As part of the initiative, Coca-Cola has appointed Asim Parekh to the position of vice president fruit circular economy. Parekh has been tasked with “driving the critical task of connecting the end-to-end value chain from farmer to grocer,” according to a Coca-Cola statement.
Coca-Cola predominantly uses Indian-grown fruit in non-carbonated beverages, which generate close to 40 per cent of the company’s revenue in the Asian nation. Indian fruit is also exported to Coca-Cola’s various international operations, with Live Mint reporting the company procures 200,000 tonnes of fruit from Indian farmers per year. The majority of this fruit is currently sourced through vendors.
“The Coca-Cola India system is already one of the largest institutional buyers of agriculture produce in India with over 95 per cent of its ingredients sourced locally,” the company statement added.
Coca-Cola is also working to improve the livelihood of several Indian farmers through its Unnati project, which aims to improve the productivity potential of mango and orange farms. The project provides over 22,500 growers with subsidised plants, drip irrigation equipment and training on ultra high density plantation.
