Is Orange The New Cola? Coca-Cola India To Use Orange Pulp To Manufacture Soft Drinks

Soft Drink and beverage brand Coca-Cola has been in the new off late for a varitey of reasons from cutting calorie content in their products to reports of toxins found in samples of a few of their products. But this time they’re making news for a reason that’s unique, novel, and, we think, pretty brilliant!

Coca-Cola India plans to take oranges from Vidarbha across the globe, according to minister of state for industries, mining and environment, Pravin Pote-Patil. The multinational plans to manufacture its products using orange pulp and to do this is setting up two orange-processing plants — at Morshi in Amravati and at Butibori in Nagpur. They plan to do this with the aim to promote the ‘Nagpur Orange Growers Association‘ (NOGA) brand, a subsidiary of Maharashtra government, which is well-known in Vidarbha region.

In the ‘Make in India’ event held in Mumbai in February, the Maharashtra government inked an tripartite pact with Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited and Jain Irrigation Comany. This pact proposed setting up an ‘Oranges Unnati Project’ on 100 acres on the basis of a public-private partnership. The Butibori plant would manufacture juices, with a mixture of Vidarbha oranges and Marathwada’s sweet lime.

The Benefits To The Orange Growers

The opening of these plants in the next few years will in turn generate a number of employment opportunities. Also, the orange growers will largely benefit from this as the demand for oranges will rise. According to reports in the Economic Times and Times Of India, sources close to Pote’s ministry have said that the company would help farmers to cultivate and increase the yield with the help of new scientific techniques like ultra high density plantation. Firthermore, growers would also be provided with classroom training and demonstrations.

Every year, the growers face huge losses on account of poor demand for oranges, forcing many of them to switch to other crops. But now, with orange pulp becoming one of the main ingredients in the products of these plants, the demand will definitely rise. Orange could be used not only in beverages, but also for producing other products like jam, sauce and even wine, with bright prospects once it reaches worldwide, they said.