Who, What, Why: In which countries is Coca-Cola not sold?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 519.

After almost 60 years, Coca-Cola is on sale again in Burma. It's one of the world's most recognised brands, so are there any countries where the drinks giant is still unsold?

Coca-Cola says it sells 1.8 billion servings of the drink every day. But for the last six decades, none has been in Burma. That's because of US trade sanctions which ruled the country from 1962 to 2011.Those sanctions ended a few months ago, as the country began to move towards democratic reforms.

But the company said on Monday its first delivery had arrived and local production would begin soon. Coca-Cola's entry into any country is a powerful symbol, says Tom Standage, author of A History of the World in Six Glasses."The moment Coca-Cola starts shipping is the moment you can say there will be real change here," he says. "Coca-Cola is the nearest thing to capitalism in a bottle."Coca-Cola's rival PepsiCo has also announced plans to restart sales in Burma.

There are now just two countries in the world where Coca-Cola cannot be bought or sold - at least, not officially. They are Cuba and North Korea, which are both under long-term US trade embargoes (Cuba since 1962 and North Korea since 1950).Cuba was actually one of the first three countries outside the US to bottle Coke, in 1906. But the company moved out as Fidel Castro's government wanted to reduce private assets in the 1960s, and has never returned. In North Korea - the other Coca-Cola-free zone - recent media reports suggested it was being sold in a restaurant in Pyongyang. But Coca-Cola says if any drinks are being sold in either North Korea or Cuba, they are from the black market, not from official channels.

After 10 years of negotiation, Coca-Cola re-entered the market of China in 1979. Official sponsor for the World Ice Hockey Championship in Moscow in 1979 was Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola re-launched in 1993 in India a parade through central Calcutta. The US lifted its embargo in Vietnam in 1994 and Coca-Cola returned soon after.

The dark fizzy soda was created in 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. From the early days the Coca-Cola Company wanted to expand worldwide, and by the early 1900s it was bottling the drink in Asia and Europe.

But the big rise came as a result of World War II when Coca-Cola was provided to US troops abroad. There were more than 60 military bottling plants for Coca-Cola around the world during the war, and local people liked the drink too.It became powerfully associated with American patriotism, and was seen as so crucial to the war effort that it was free from sugar rationing.

Dwight Eisenhower, at the time the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, was said to be a particular fan and he made sure it was available in North Africa.He also introduced the drink to top Soviet general, Georgy Zhukov.

These days Coca-Cola is regularly ranked as one of the top global brands.

"It has always been connected with the American dream," says Bruce Webster, an independent branding consultant who has done work for the Coca-Cola Company in the past.

But not all countries wanted to accept the American-ness that seems to be presented by Coca-Cola.It was the French who first useded the offensive term "coca-colonisation" in the 1950s. Trucks were overturned and bottles smashed, says Standage, as protesters saw the drink as a danger to French society.

During the Cold War, Coca-Cola became a symbol of capitalism and a special mark of capitalism that communism didn`t have, says Webster.It was not produced in the Soviet Union because of the fear that profits would go straight into communist government`s hands, says Standage.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, many East Germans bought Coca-Cola. Drinking Coca-Cola became a symbol of freedom."

Other than the Soviet Union, the main region that Coca-Cola has struggled to get in historically is the Middle East. The main reason is a boycott made by the Arab League from 1968-1991, as a punishment for the selling of Coca-Cola in Israel.

The first Coca-Cola was served in 1886 at a pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.

Canada, Cuba and Panama became the first countries outside the US to bottle it in 1906.Coca-Cola expanded to Asia, opened a bottling plant in the Philippines in 1912, and then in Paris and Bordeaux in 1919. By 1930 Coca-Cola was bottled in 27 countries around the world. By 1959, it was operating in over 100 countries.

Pepsi took a lot of the sales in the Middle East - and many local versions of the drink appeared.

Coca-Cola is not trying to be involved in politics, says Webster, but as a huge brand so closely associated with the US, it sometimes finds itself in politics and in criticism.

"The whole strength of the brand is connected with a way of life that so many people wanted. And sometimes those associations become unattractive," he says.

In 2003, protesters in Thailand poured Coca-Cola onto the streets as a demonstration against the US-led invasion of Iraq, and sales were temporarily reduced, says Standage.

Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has promised to ban Coca-Cola and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez recently asked people to drink locally-made fruit juice rather than drink Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

But 126 years after its birth, Coca-Cola is still pushing forward in terms of sales, with strong growth - especially, it says, in the developing markets of India, China and Brazil.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19550067