BAGHDAD, 23 June 2003 — With Saddam Hussein’s regime gone, an influx of foreign-made cola brands has poured into Baghdad, sparking a cut-throat soft drinks war against the dominant Iraqi Pepsi Cola.
Pepsi Cola had been the only cola in Iraq since the mid-1960s when the Arab League placed Coca-Cola on a blacklist to protest the US giant’s decision to build a factory in Israel, forcing the company to close its Iraqi plant.
But the Iraqi cola, which comes in a bottle priced at just 16 cents, is now being pushed aside at street stalls and supermarkets by customers grabbing foreign brands, mostly from Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey.
“During the Saddam years, we had no choice but Iraqi Pepsi. We were forced to buy it because it was the only thing we could find in the shops,” said Sawsan Rasul, a 38-year-old housewife, at Al-Warda supermarket in Baghdad.
“But now I can buy foreign cola. My favorite is Saudi Pepsi,” she said.
Iraqi Pepsi is currently selling about 7.2 million bottles a month, down more than 60 percent from its pre-war sales figures, but the company attributes the fall to power shortages rather than falling consumer demand.
An influx of imports came after the UN Security Council last month put an end to 13-year-old economic sanctions imposed on Iraq and the US-led coalition introduced a tariff holiday on almost all goods until the end of the year to boost the country’s battered economy.
Ahmed Mohammed, a 54-year-old former government worker and currently jobless, said he liked Lebanese and Kuwaiti Diet Pepsi, adding neither he nor his wife trusted the quality of the Iraqi version.
“I heard that Iraqi Pepsi used expired concentrate during the economic sanctions,” he said.
Hamid Jassim, managing director at Baghdad Soft Drink Co., which produces Pepsi Cola, Mirinda and Seven Up, bitterly disputes Mohammed’s allegation.
“Even during the years of sanctions, we maintained the same quality. Although we faced some difficulties, we managed to produce good quality products,” Jassim said.
“People in Iraq trust our products,” he said.
The Iraqi branch of the company, which started out in the 1950s, used to renew its US license every year and import concentrate from the United States. But after the 1991 Gulf War, it lost the license and the right to import concentrate.
During the economic sanctions, the factory imported concentrate from Europe but had to stop its production line for canned Pepsi when machinery broke down and it was unable to import German-made spare parts.
Iraqis noticed a change in the taste.
“In the 80s, Iraqi Pepsi’s quality was very good. But during the sanctions it tasted very light and not as good. It was just sweet colored-water with no fizz,” said Adel Mohammed, a 40-year-old chicken seller.
“All my family members like Saudi Pepsi. We no longer drink Iraqi Pepsi,” Mohammed said.
His neighbor, Majida Sabur, a 25-year-old sales clerk at a rental wedding dress shop, agreed.
“The quality became very poor during the sanctions. The company must have cheated with some of the ingredients,” Sabur said.
“I prefer Syrian Cola to Iraqi Pepsi,” she said.
Across the street from Majida’s wedding shop, 16-year-old Hussein Hassan carries 10 kinds of soft drinks, including Iraqi Pepsi, but said the top seller was Saudi Pepsi.
“Iraqi Pepsi does not have strong carbonated-acid. Saudi cola sells better than the Iraqi stuff,” the boy said.
Amar Denkha, a 30-year-old store manager at Al-Warda supermarket, said he would stop selling Iraqi Pepsi until the formation of a new Iraqi government, expected within the next two years.
“The (ousted) government had a Quality Control Department at the Health Ministry to check raw materials and ingredients of our products. But since we have no government now, I don’t trust Iraqi products, which could harm our customers,” Denkha said.
“Foreign soft drinks are no longer expensive. Iraqi people can afford to buy them now. They taste better and I trust their quality,” he said.
Pepsi’s Jassim said the company, in which the ousted government held a 25 percent share, was in talks with the US parent company again to renew its license within a few months.
