Even with the hundreds of boxes with “cloned” soft drink bottles of the Coca-Cola brand that arrived in the capital market, the soda had the biggest price rise in the last three years.
This week, the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office announced the dismantling of a “factory” in the Santa Martha Acatitla neighborhood, Iztapalapa, where they cloned soft drinks that They were sold in street markets such as “Salado” and others located in the border area with the State of Mexico.
“Research suggests that the filled box of soft drinks was marketed between 200 and 210 pesosand it is estimated that they sold 50 to 60 boxes daily, which represented a profit of 10,000 to 12,600 pesos,” explained Ulises Lara, spokesman for the capital’s Prosecutor’s Office.
The news generated commotion throughout the country, and it is not for less, because consumers were filled with doubts about the quality of the drinks offered in street stallswith the health implications that this entails.
THE INFORMANT/FILE
INCREASE CONSUMPTION OF SOFT DRINKS… AND PRICES TOO
However the supply of soft drinks, both legal and illegal, was insufficient to supply the increase in demand from the residents of the capitalwhich allowed businesses to raise their prices.
With an average consumption per person of 163 liters per year, Mexico is the nation that consumes the most soft drinks on the planetleaving the United States in second place, according to figures from Yale University and Statista.
In Mexico City, Bottled soft drinks rose in price by 8.6% during March compared to the same month last yearwhich exceeded the capital’s inflation of 6%, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
The last time soft drinks became so expensive was three years ago, in March 2020.when they increased 9.6% and the COVID pandemic had just been decreed.
THE INFORMANT/FILE
INFLATION HIT THE COCAS
For example, a one-liter bottle of Coca-Cola sold for an average of 25 pesos in the country’s capital, while a year earlier it cost 22 pesos.
The pack of six Coca-Cola cans, of 355 milliliters each, rose from 39.67 to 43.72 pesos in the last year; while the bottle of Coca-Cola Light of 600 milliliters increased from 25 to 28.33 pesos in the entity whose head of government is Claudia Sheinbaum.
Last year, Coca-Cola FEMSA (KOF) raised the prices of its soft drinks three timesaccording to a list that was distributed among businesses in the country.
With operations in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and other nations, KOF is the world’s largest bottler by sales volume and is responsible for producing and distributing The Coca-Cola Company trademark beverages.
The company failed to save itself from the inflationary wave and it had to adjust the prices of its products due to the higher costs of its raw materials, mainly PET and sweeteners.
KOF operates in Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Chiapas, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz, while the rest of the country is served by Arca Continental and Bepensa. companies that also made their products more expensive.
JM
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