Coke plans to source orange pulp locally

Coca Cola India today said it is exploring the option of sourcing orange pulp for its recently launched juice drink 'Minute Maid Pulpy Orange' from the country itself.

"We are quite keen on sourcing the orange pulp and orange concentrate from India itself for our domestic market," Vikas Chawla, VP (franchise operations), Coca Cola India told reporters.

At present, the company is importing orange pulp and orange juice concentrate from Florida and Brazil respectively. It sources mangoes locally for its 'Maaza' brand, which has 39% share in the domestic juice beverage market.

"... We are looking at setting up a bottling plant for orange juice drink in the north which will be decided soon," Chawla said.

The company is currently getting the Minute Maid brand bottled in China for catering to its customers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

It has a bottling plant at Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh, which caters to customers of southern India. "Within four months of launch, we have sold 4 million units of our juice brand in the south," he said.

The company plans to make available the drink at 20,000 retail outlets in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh within the next two months, Davinder Singh, director (new product commercialisation), Coca Cola India said.