Fruit juices go local

New Delhi:
23 June 2004

For Tropicana India is proving to be a good investment as according to top officials in the company, "India is among Tropicana's top ten markets which is continuously moving up having registered a strong double digit growth last year. But they did not reveal any numbers.

The company wants to ensure that the strong growth continues and also that the market expands further. To this end Tropicana has launched a sub-brand Tropicana Tropics and is introducing new flavours mango nectar, guava pulp and litchi juice under this brand. It may be recalled that Pepsi had launched mango and litchi flavours earlier under its fruit drink brand 'Slice' in returnable glass bottles.
The new variants are expected to come for around Rs 50/ litre as these come under the category of 'less than 20 percent fruit pulp' making them less pricey than Tropicana fruit juices all of which retail at above Rs 70/litre. Tropicana juices have 80 percent fruit pulp content.

At present Tropicana has about seven flavours in the market — apple, pineapple, orange, apple orange, grape and mixed fruit.
Tropicana is also looking at making India the sourcing hub for certain varieties of fruits mainly mango.

According to Graham Andrews marketing director, fruit beverages PepsiCo who was on a first visit to India recently, "India has emerged as an approved source for mango pulp within the Tropicana worldwide system, and the country can soon emerge as a major sourcing base for other exotic fruits for Tropicana's international market."

Pepsi is already exporting nearly 20,000 tonne of mango pulp and concentrate predominantly to west Asia and Europe from India. The company is now working on building the same capacities for other fruits like guava, pineapple, papaya pulp, grapes and pomegranate.

"We are also exploring the opportunities for exporting other fruit juices like guava and litchi which can become very popular in the Asian region where consumer preferences are similar to India," said Subroto Chattopadhyay, executive director, Pepsi Foods India.

Pepsi's international team of experts has been visiting farms and processing units to provide key technical inputs.

The company has identified two vendors — Clean Foods and Sunsip — as its 'strategic allies in Andhra Pradesh who have together set up four units in the state.