Boycott of American soft drinks amid Gaza conflict

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which have spent years and millions of dollars building up demand for their drinks in Muslim-majority countries, are now facing a challenge.

As the war rages in Gaza, more active consumers in these countries are boycotting brands that represent the United States – a strong supporter of Israel.

In Egypt, local cola brand V7 exported three times as many bottles as last year – while sales of Coke plummeted.

In Bangladesh, an outcry forced Coca-Cola to cancel an ad campaign against the boycott.

And for Pepsi, rapid growth across the Middle East evaporated after the Gaza war began.

V7 company founder Mohamed Nour said the company has expanded around 40% in the local market and exports have tripled.

In Jordan, a sign reads “Attention: This is a boycotted product, the choice is yours.”

It’s prompted Waleed al-Seoudi to shop differently.

“The boycott played a major role in making me think again about local and Arab products. We are able to develop these local products through our purchases and support. We are capable of making better products than the boycotted products.”

Fawaz Idriss is the Senior Vice President at Abu Issa Holding, which distributes soft drink Kinza across Qatar.

He believes the boycott will have long-term effects.

“Mainly because this boycott is happening by young people, and they have very, very strong beliefs. In my opinion, they will not kind of let go of these beliefs very easily. Second reason, it’s habitual. Once people switch, it’s very, sometimes very difficult for them to go back to their old habits.”

In the six months Pepsi said its drink volumes in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia division barely grew.

That’s after notching up 8% and15% growth in the same quarters a year previous.

Data showed that volumes of Coke sold in Egypt declined by double-digit percentage points in the six months ended June 28.

In the same time period last year, volumes were up in the high single digits.

Coca-Cola has said it does not fund military operations in Israel or any country.

PepsiCo said neither the company “nor any of our brands are affiliated with any government or military in the conflict.”