Mystery boom in soft-drink exports

Response to EU action on sugar stocks?

Exports of soft drinks have been booming this year, but finding a producer who wants to boast about it is proving a mystery.

According to data from the Statistical Service, exports of soft drinks rose to 3,821,549 litres in the first four months of 2005, compared with only 52,458 in the same period of 2004.

This marks an increase of more than 7,000% year on year.

What is more difficult to ascertain is which company is producing so much of the sticky stuff.

There are only three producers of soft drinks on this side of the island: Pepsi, Lanitis (makers of Coca-Cola) and KEAN.

According to our sources, Pepsi does not export, so the only other two possibilities are Coca-Cola and KEAN .

No one from these two companies returned our phone calls.

One reason why soft-drink producers may be exporting so much is in order to comply with European Commission requirements to cut excessive sugar stocks by November of this year.

Sugar importers in Cyprus and other new member states were caught stockpiling sugar before EU membership on May 1 led to an immediate doubling of prices, which carried on rising.

This was perfectly rational behaviour but was against EU rules.

Importers must now get rid of their stocks and it seems that at least one company has realised that the best way to shift stocks is to use them for exports.

Fiona Mullen