Coca-Cola Femsa

Food & Drink Weekly, March 7, 2005

Coca-Cola Femsa is to use corn sweetener rather than sugar for some of its domestic soft drink production, the Mexican company has said. Femsa CFO Hector Trevino said the company has managed to gain a court injunction that will allow it to bypass the special taxes placed on soft drinks producers that use high fructose corn syrup.

The 20% tax was brought in by Mexico's Congress in 2002 to help protect the local sugar industry. As a consequence, Mexican soft drink producers have been using sugar as their primary sweetener. But rising sugar prices are making this an increasingly difficult decision. The move by Femsa is likely to come under fire by the Mexican sugar industry.