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When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

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Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#41

Post by hristov »

mardifoufs wrote: post #12
Mekantis wrote: post #2

People like to pretend that protectionism is such a bad thing. But Western nations built themselves through protectionism, it's something China has been doing to great success and the Asian tiger economies (primarily South Korea) did as well. After all, there's only so much you can do for your population if you never ensure a steady supply of high quality jobs that provide a path into the middle class, and you don't…

Latin america and even india are proofs that "pure" protectionism does not work. Even China is an example of free trade working. China opened up massively , reduced customs, reduced costs of doing business etc for 3 decades before moving towards more restrictive and more protectionist policies. After learning as much as possible from foreign corporations that flocked to China. Even now, free trade would be much more…

Latin America is an example how the "free market" theory as espoused by the washington consensus is very bad for developing nations. Latin America is the region that most closely follows the washington consensus and they have suffered for this mightily for this over the post ww2 years.

There were little spurts of protectionism in argentina and brasil but those happened only around the 2000s and only as a reaction after many years of gutting the countries under free market policies.

Holding China as an example of free trade success is a little wrong, to say the least. Post ww2 China has always had a very carefully crafted protectionist policies, and while they did open up majorly, they are still very protectionist by almost any sane international standard. Lets not forget that even now to start any significant business in China you need to make sure that Chinese nationals own a majority of your business.

India liberalized much more than China during the 80s and 90s, so if you want to make that comparison, India should be on the free trade side. In my opinion though the Chinese economic success in comparison to India had much more to do with domestic social policies. China simply did the best to ensure that despite wide spread poverty most people have access to education, clean water, modern medical services, modern telecom and transportation infrastructure, etc. India, on the other hand, as part of their "modernization" gutted social programs (again, listening to the Washington consensus) and they still have a vast part of their population in a more or less pre-industrial state of education and development.

Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#43

Post by satya71 »

There are basically two ways a company can gain market share: make better product or spend a lot capital. Opening up the economy allows both kinds of competition, and local companies in a developing cannot do the second.

Cold drinks are a sector where capital is the only way to gain market share. No wonder Coca Cola could outspend its local rivals and capture market share.

Sectors where innovation and understanding of local market matters, local competitors can emerge and do better. Vehicles are one such market where developed country behemoths have had limited success. Dinosaurs like Hindustan Motors couldn't compete, but Maruti Suzuki (now Suzuki) and Hyundai maintain comfortable leads in market share.

Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#45

Post by slim »

nkurz wrote: post #31
saagarjha wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A water scarce country like India should really not promote high consumption of soda and sugar based drinks. I mean, I can see not promoting sugary drinks in general…but what does this have to do with water scarcity?

I'm dubious about the numbers as well, but this article tries to do a full calculation of water usage for a .5L bottle of Coca Cola produced in the Netherlands: https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-... It concludes that each .5L bottle requires 35L of water as input. The majority of this is from the water required to grow sugar beets, which comes primarily from natural rainfall. Obviously, Indi…

coke gets delivered around the world in barrels concentrated. only water is added in factories.

Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#46

Post by ardit33 »

Mekantis wrote: post #2

People like to pretend that protectionism is such a bad thing. But Western nations built themselves through protectionism, it's something China has been doing to great success and the Asian tiger economies (primarily South Korea) did as well. After all, there's only so much you can do for your population if you never ensure a steady supply of high quality jobs that provide a path into the middle class, and you don't…

If that is true, then Argentina (and many other Latin countries that adopted protectionism policies) would be flourishing. Argentina should be as rich as Canada, but they are 1/5th of their level.

Protectionism might workout/help out for a limited time to jump start nascent local industries, but in the long term is damaging to an economy.

Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#47

Post by RealityVoid »

jlg23 wrote: post #20
tadasZ wrote: post #17

In my opinion Vita-Cola, Polo-Cockta, Kofola faded not because of coca cola, but because they were controlled by soviet mentality people from "higher status", party people and so on, who didn't care about anything but themselves, a lot of companies disappeared after soviet union collapsed (thank god it did collapse) because of crime, corruption and complete incompetence.

Vita-Cola is again alive and kicking, and I am one who actually loves it. I am sure this is not just nostalgia, because, even though I was born in the GDR, I was 9 when the wall fell and maybe had 3 glasses of Vita Cola before. "crime, corruption and complete incompetence" are often cited as the reasons for why local brands disappeared, along with "nostalgia" for their revival. I personally believe people just wanted…

I think curiosity doesn't really cover it. Being a kid in the 90's, home-grown soda sucked. In Romania, we had knock-offs such a Adria Cola witch were, quite honestly, horrible.

Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#48

Post by rodgerd »

jariel wrote: post #26
adi2907 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China never allowed unfettered access to global firms. Since Deng Xiaoping opened up, the rule for a foreign firm to gain access was 1) to tie up with a local company which will have significant stake and 2) ensure technology transfer to the local company over a period. This was a pre condition for market access, and basically how electronics components makers were built. The recent stars like Huawei, Xiaomi and Leno…

" You will not find a single example of any country becoming developed following free trade except for island nations like Singapore" Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in reality, the US as well. The US has always been pretty open. But yes, if a nation is in shambles, it may very well make sense to make major strategic investments for the national good, but ultimately, it can't last. Korea, Japan etc. would be much…

New Zealand has fallen further and further behind its nearest neighbor over the time it's taken a hard-line free-trade position.

Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#49

Post by mistermann »

ardit33 wrote: post #46
Mekantis wrote: post #2

People like to pretend that protectionism is such a bad thing. But Western nations built themselves through protectionism, it's something China has been doing to great success and the Asian tiger economies (primarily South Korea) did as well. After all, there's only so much you can do for your population if you never ensure a steady supply of high quality jobs that provide a path into the middle class, and you don't…

If that is true, then Argentina (and many other Latin countries that adopted protectionism policies) would be flourishing. Argentina should be as rich as Canada, but they are 1/5th of their level. Protectionism might workout/help out for a limited time to jump start nascent local industries, but in the long term is damaging to an economy.

Or, perhaps there is more than one single variable involved in economic development.

Re: When India kicked out Coca-Cola, local sodas thrived (2019)

#50

Post by johannes1234321 »

slim wrote: post #45
nkurz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm dubious about the numbers as well, but this article tries to do a full calculation of water usage for a .5L bottle of Coca Cola produced in the Netherlands: https://www.waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/CocaCola-TNC-... It concludes that each .5L bottle requires 35L of water as input. The majority of this is from the water required to grow sugar beets, which comes primarily from natural rainfall. Obviously, Indi…

coke gets delivered around the world in barrels concentrated. only water is added in factories.

This is a nice legend about the secret recipe. However production differs oflver the world. I.e. I'm the US the sweetener is high fructose corn syrup, while Europe uses Sycrose.
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