Production of PepsiCo products in Russia has finally ended with the exhaustion of its supplies of beverage concentrate, the company has announced.
PepsiCo originally said in early March that it would cease production in Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine in February. However, Reuters found PepsiCo beverages with July and August production dates, made in Russian plants, on shelves in Russia this month. PepsiCo’s explanation is that those plants were working from stocks of concentrate they had on hand at the time of the invasion, and that those stocks have finally been depleted.
PepsiCo had come under some criticism shortly after Russia’s invasion started for continuing to produce potato chips in Russia, saying that they qualified for an exemption as an “essential item.”
Bunge Ltd. joined the ranks of food companies exiting Russia with the sale of an sunflower oil processing plant in the Voronezh region, its only facility in the country. The buyer is the controlling shareholder of the Exoil Group, a Russian edible-oils company. The sale, whose terms were not disclosed, also included the rights to its local brands of edible oils.
