More Coca-Cola imports on the way

To boost stocks, meet demand

MANILA, Philippines —  The Coca-Cola Europacific Aboitiz Philippines (CCEAP) has begun importing finished classic Coke products from Indonesia to augment its domestic supply and meet Filipinos’ growing demand for the popular beverage.

CCEAP confirmed to The STAR that it has been importing from Indonesia to “help ensure” that its consumers have “access” to their “favorite” Coca-Cola products.

Some 320-milliliter and 1.5-liter Coca-Cola Original Taste variants sold locally have been manufactured in Indonesia by PT Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia, a plant under the network of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), which owns 60 percent of CCEAP.

The labels of the products indicated that they were manufactured for export to the Philippines and were imported and distributed by CCEAP. The labels also showed that taxes and duties were paid.

Bureau of Customs (BOC) records confirmed that millions of liters of Coca-Cola Original Taste products have entered the country with their proper value-added tax (VAT) and excise taxes paid accordingly.

“(The importation) allows us to maintain reliable product availability in the Philippines while expanding our local manufacturing capabilities, with the vast majority of products sold in the country continuing to be made locally,” CCEAP said in an emailed statement.

CCEAP assured consumers that all Coca-Cola Original Taste products, imported or locally produced, follow the same standards to ensure they have the same quality and taste.

Both the locally produced and imported 320-ml Coca-Cola Original Taste products have the same sugar content of 33.5 grams, based on their respective nutrition information labels.

“CCEAP manages its supply network to help ensure product availability for consumers. It is a business practice that may be used when appropriate to support product availability for consumers,” it said.

Growing demand

Industry sources noted that this is the first time in at least a decade that the authorized local distributor of Coca-Cola imported a finished product.

In the past, Coca-Cola urged the government to open an import program to bring in foreign stocks when local supplies of premium refined bottler grade sugar were inadequate to meet its requirement.

CCEAP, the current official bottling partner and distributor of Coca-Cola products in the Philippines, is a joint venture between CCEP and Aboitiz Equity Ventures.

The company is seeing an uptick in the demand for its beverage products, especially classic Coca-Cola, according to sources.

CCEP, the parent bottling company of CCEAP headed by its CEO Damian Gammell, is bullish on the Philippine market after seeing a “profitable” topline momentum in the country in the first half.

The United Kingdom-headquartered company said the volume growth of Coca-Cola trademark items in the Philippines was driven by “continued strength” of Coca-Cola Original Taste and double-digit increase in Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.

In 2025, 60 percent of the volume sold by CCEAP were Coca-Cola trademark products while 22 percent were mixers like Royal. In terms of package mix, 55 percent of the products sold by CCEAP were in plastic bottles while 37 percent were in glass.

“Construction of our new facility remains on track for 2027 and will provide additional capacity to support long-term profitable growth in the Philippines, with margins now approaching our 10 percent target,” CCEP CEO Damian Gammell said during a conference call last August.

Gammell was referring to a 42-hectare manufacturing facility being established at AEV’s TARI Estate in Tarlac. The facility broke ground in September last year.

It is envisioned to be the largest Coca-Cola site in the country and one of CCEP’s biggest manufacturing facilities globally.

At present, CCEAP has 18 manufacturing plants and 39 distribution centers nationwide.

Liters and taxes

BOC records analyzed by The STAR showed that Coca-Cola finished products started entering the country in November 2025.

A total of 5.35 million liters of Coca-Cola Original Taste were imported in the last two months of last year. All the products were 1.5-L variants.

However, a single Coca-Cola Original Taste product was not imported from January until May of this year.

BOC data showed that entry of Coca-Cola Original Taste products resumed in June and continued until last August. During the three-month period, a total of 11.63 million liters of Coca-Cola Original Taste were imported into the country.

On top of the 1.5-L variant, shipments of 320-ML can variants have begun entering the country.

The two Coca-Cola Original Taste variants use full sugar as an ingredient without any artificial sweeteners, based on marketing monitoring and official online retail channels of Coca-Cola in the country. Some Coca-Cola Original Taste products like the two-liter variant sold locally contain an artificial sweetener.

At least 65 percent or around 7.66 million liters of the Coca-Cola Original Taste imported this year were in 1.5-L plastic bottles while the remaining 3.97 million liters were 320-ML cans, based on BOC data.

BOC records also showed that VAT and excise taxes for all recorded shipments of Coca-Cola Original Taste products were properly paid. Beverages containing sweeteners are levied with a P6 per liter excise tax if they use caloric or non-caloric sweeteners including sugar.

The BOC collected P44.5 million in VAT and P71.79 million in excise taxes from imported Coca-Cola products since last year.

Sugar industry implications

But industry sources told The STAR that CCEP’s decision to import finished goods may have severe implications for the local sugar industry.

They worry that the importation could displace demand for locally-produced refined sugar — especially if the volume continues to grow — given that one of the biggest buyers of the sweetener has been CCEAP.

“That is troubling to us,” a sugar industry player said, noting that reduced purchases of refined sugar could decrease demand for raw sugar, resulting in lesser needs for sugarcane and ultimately softening prices across the board.

The STAR learned that there have been recent meetings among representatives of CCEAP, Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and sugar industry, including traders and refiners, to discuss the bottler’s projected sweetener demand in the immediate future.

“The issue is not the supply because there is available refined sugar. The problem is with the price since [CCEAP] and the industry are not agreeing on the price,” a source familiar with the matter said.

However, CCEAP denied that the importation of finished products has anything to do with the prevailing domestic refined sugar supply situation or its prices. CCEAP emphasized that the importation was done to ensure supply reliability of its products.

SRA administrator and CEO Pablo Luis Azcona was surprised to learn that CCEAP decided to import finished Coke items from its peer Indonesian plant.

“We were not aware that Coca-Cola had plans to import finished products,” Azcona told The STAR.

“It is their commercial decision,” Azcona said, adding that nothing stops CCEAP from importing manufactured beverage items.

The domestic demand for refined sugar from Oct. 1, 2025 until Aug. 23 has increased by eight percent on an annual basis, based on the latest SRA figures.

“We just hope that this action by Coca-Cola will not affect local [refined sugar] demand,” Azcona said.