Improving farmers income, stepping up production of health products and protecting the operating ecosystem will remain key constituents of Pepsi’s business strategy in India, according to a top official of the company.
In a free-wheeling interaction with The Hindu here on Friday, D. Shivakumar, CEO, PepsiCo India Holdings Private Ltd., said, “we have nothing to do with PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a non-government organisation].”
Asserting that Pepsi had been a partner of Indian farmers all along, he said sustainability had been a crucial component of its partnership with Indian farmers. Pointing to the technology support and extension programmes that Pepsi had been providing to potato growers in the country, he said the focus of the exercise was to touch the entire value chain – from input provision to facilitating financial support and product procurement. The resultant ecosystem, he said, helped farmers improve yield, get higher price and earn predictable income.
Mr. Shivakumar said Pepsi would try to extend similar support to those cultivating crops such as mango. “Our effort is very much aligned to the country’s big need of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. We continue to invest into areas which are very important to farmers,” he said.
Pepsi, he said, was working with close to 24,000 potato growers. “We have brought in Frito Lay variety of seeds into India. Farmers have a buy-back agreement with us, and their income have gone up by 35% over the last 2-3 years,” he added.
Mr. Shivakumar asserted that “we are water positive.” In this context, he said, Pepsi had ‘given back’ 12.75 billion litres of water in 2015 alone through assorted conservation and replenishment initiatives. In Tamil Nadu, especially, Pepsi was water positive by 1.5 billion litres in 2015, he added.
The three manufacturing facilities it had in Tamil Nadu provided direct jobs to 3,500 people. A release claimed that PepsiCo Foundation invested $17.6 million (close to ₹114 crore) between 2008-2016 for programmes related to WASH (Swacch Bharat) and improved access to clean drinking water, benefiting more than four million people across the country.
“Tamil Nadu is one of the key markets from the point of our investments, brand stature and community initiatives,” he said. His statement must be viewed in the context of a recent call for ban on sales of Pepsi and Coca Cola drinks in the state by local traders’ associations.
Reinforcing the ‘3 P’ thrust (on people, product and planet), Mr. Shivakumar said Pepsi would fully fit into the Prime Minister’s “Make in India’” campaign even as it sought to transform its product portfolio to contain more health products. “We have a vision of this. And, we have a plan as well,” he said.
Innovation and local tastes would be the focal point of this transformation, he said. All these would make Pepsi more than a carbonated soft drink. In this context, he asserted that the introduction of Quaker products would transform the way ‘breakfast’ was taken by the Indian people.
