Economy

Eugene

(65,814 posts) Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:45 AM Sunday

Coke's shift to cane sugar would be expensive, hurt US farmers

Source: Reuters

Coke's shift to cane sugar would be expensive, hurt US farmers

Marcelo Teixeira, Karl Plume and Renee Hickman
Thu, July 17, 2025 at 3:16 PM EDT·4 min read

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A possible move by Coca-Cola , and other beverage and food industries, to use cane sugar instead of corn syrup as a sweetener would be difficult and expensive to implement, while mostly negative for farmers in the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Coca-Cola had agreed to use cane sugar in its beverages in the country after his discussions with the maker of the top soda pop brand.

-snip-

In response to Trump's comment, Coca-Cola said "more details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon.”

PepsiCo also said on Thursday it would use sugar in its products like Pepsi beverages if consumers want it.

Industry analysts, however, said changes in the formulation of the rest of the Coke sold in the U.S., and other beverages and candies, would involve significant adjustments to companies' supply chains, since corn syrup and sugar come from different producers. It would also involve changes to product labeling, and cost more.

-snip-

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/finance/news/cokes-shift-cane-sugar-expensive-191618434.html

9 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Coke's shift to cane sugar would be expensive, hurt US farmers (Original Post) Eugene Sunday OP

Would it be healthier and less costly for the medical system? bucolic_frolic Sunday #1

Sugar agriculture requires a lot of infrastructure The Blue Flower Sunday #2

FAFO we can do it Sunday #4

Corn growers get plenty of subsidies. They will be fine. Autumn Sunday #5

Coke is not healthy... Mike Nelson Sunday #3

Why does a Diet-Coke drinker have a dog in the fight? Sneederbunk Sunday #6

Not sure if it's still true EverHopeful Sunday #7

This is just like Donny talking about all the countries that had made tariff deals with him tanyev Sunday #8

The USA produces 3/4 of our sugar consumption IbogaProject Sunday #9

bucolic_frolic

(51,502 posts)

1. Would it be healthier and less costly for the medical system?

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:47 AM

Sunday

The Blue Flower

(6,026 posts)

2. Sugar agriculture requires a lot of infrastructure

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:51 AM

Sunday

Growing, harvesting, and processing cane sugar will require a huge capital investment in workers and equipment. And it will gut the corn growers.

we can do it

(12,928 posts)

4. FAFO

Reply to The Blue Flower (Reply #2)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 11:00 AM

Sunday

Autumn

(48,165 posts)

5. Corn growers get plenty of subsidies. They will be fine.

Reply to The Blue Flower (Reply #2)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 11:15 AM

Sunday

HFC should not be used in the food chain.

Mike Nelson

(10,664 posts)

3. Coke is not healthy...

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 10:52 AM

Sunday

... Diet Coke is worse. There are some "natural" sodas, but check the labels on them, too!

Sneederbunk

(16,303 posts)

6. Why does a Diet-Coke drinker have a dog in the fight?

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 11:15 AM

Sunday

EverHopeful

(559 posts)

7. Not sure if it's still true

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 11:29 AM

Sunday

but Coke (or possibly it was Pepsi, can't remember) sold in the US during Passover used to be made with cane sugar instead of HFCS. I bought some after I'd read that and checked the label but I drink soda so rarely that I wasn't able to tell whether it tasted any better. Guess I should have held onto it and done a comparison test when HFCS came back but didn't think of it.

Recently read of a taste-test comparison where all but 1 of the testers preferred the cane sugar version.

tanyev

(47,156 posts)

8. This is just like Donny talking about all the countries that had made tariff deals with him

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 12:00 PM

Sunday

when hardly any country had.

Delusional nonsense spews out of his mouth, he posts it on Truth Social, and then expects it to actually happen.

IbogaProject

(4,663 posts)

9. The USA produces 3/4 of our sugar consumption

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Sun Jul 20, 2025, 12:17 PM

Sunday

And beet sugar is expected to increase. Beets can grow in same areas as corn. Our domestic sugar production has been steadaly increasing since the 1980s.

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