Coke Has Suspended All Production in Venezuela - Polidicks

[b]Coke Has Suspended All Production in Venezuela[/b] Via [url=http://fortune.com/2016/05/20/coke-venezuela-suspends/]Fortune[/url] _________________________ [quote][img]http://i.imgur.com/k6ZRgHb.jpg[/img] Coca-Cola FEMSA has suspended all production in Venezuela because of a sugar shortage, the Mexican beverage multinational said in a statement. The company, the largest Coke KO -0.81% bottler in the world, told workers sugar supplies were too low and that the problem could persist for months, according to several media reports. Coca-Cola FEMSA, which operates across Latin American, said 90% of its products require sugar. At the same time, the company said that while it was closing its central office in Venezuela, it was not exiting the country. Last month, Polar Group, Venezuela’s largest food and beverage company and biggest private company overall, said it would suspend production of beer and other malt beverages because of a lack of barley. The suspension comes as Venezuela’s economy appears to be teetering on the brink of collapse. Earlier this week, President Nicolas Maduro repeated his threat to seize closed factories and nationalize them. And Reuters reported water levels have dropped close to a critical low in Venezuela’s main dam and hydroelectric plant, which provides the majority of the country’s electricity, leading the government to ration water. The oil-producing country’s economy is struggling to contend with low energy prices.[/quote] Well... there goes another commodity that we all take for granted, but for most people in Venezuela, has just turned into a luxury. :/

i genuinely wonder if we'll see people smuggling coke into the country imagine telling your friends that you smuggled coke into a country with a straight face

pretty big considering the only other place coke isn't sold right now is North Korea

Speaking of North Korea, their airline is the absolute worst. [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g__aWSEGosI[/media] Look at this... [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfOCQ2Jnyx8[/media] And this [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aHaZ1TLCTc[/media] [url]http://www.airlinequality.com/ratings/1-star-airline-ratings/[/url] [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Wrong thread / topic ???" - Craptasket))[/highlight]

[QUOTE=J!NX;50361822]i genuinely wonder if we'll see people smuggling coke into the country imagine telling your friends that you smuggled coke into a country with a straight face[/QUOTE] Would be more funny to smuggle coke into Columbia, though. Or at least slightly ironic.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;50361899]Would be more funny to smuggle coke into Columbia[/QUOTE] That's not too far from Georgia, though, where the Coca-Cola Company itself is headquartered. I'm sure plenty already gets smuggled in as we speak. Now, if we were talking about smuggling into Colombia, that would indeed be pretty funny

I don't know about what most people think. but from all the news and stuff i've been hearing on facepunch about this guy trying to get out of that country. I think it's time to run out of that country.

[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;50361893]Speaking of North Korea, their airline is the absolute worst. [/QUOTE] interesting but this doesnt really have anything to do with the article

Op got banned for being offtopic, what. This is pretty bad for Venezuela though, isn't coca cola one of the biggest employers in the country? I may be remembering an old article wrong.

As I've said beforr, I'm surprised the military haven't stepped in and tried to toss Maduro out or enact a coup. Not that it'll do the country any more good but at this rate I wouldn't be surprised to see a civil war coming. [QUOTE=Pretiacruento;50361893]-Relevant post- [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Wrong thread / topic ???" - Craptasket))[/highlight][/QUOTE] Garbage reason to ban the OP Craptasket, it's relevant to the above post and in the fact that it's their thread about another 'communist leaning' country going to shit.

[QUOTE=GordonZombie;50363869] Garbage reason to ban the OP Craptasket, it's relevant to the above post and in the fact that it's their thread about another 'communist leaning' country going to shit. [/QUOTE] "Oh, Venezuela isn't selling coke anymore? Here's 10 fun facts about Joseph Stalin." It isn't relevant in any way. Why does anyone need to know about Korean air travel on a thread about Coke in Venezuela?

As the article says, barley is also in short supply. I wonder if this is a worldwide thing, or if it's only in venezuela, possibly because of the economic state of the country?

[QUOTE=kharkovus;50364566]As the article says, barley is also in short supply. I wonder if this is a worldwide thing, or if it's only in venezuela, possibly because of the economic state of the country?[/QUOTE] The sugar shortage seems to be [I]limiting[/I] cola production throughout Latin America, but demand for cola presumably hasn't dropped outside of Venezuela, where most people can't really afford to waste money on things like that at the moment.

[QUOTE=GordonZombie;50363869] Garbage reason to ban the OP Craptasket, it's relevant to the above post and in the fact that it's their thread about another 'communist leaning' country going to shit.[/QUOTE] That post was far from relevant. Somehow "the only other place they dont sell coke is NK" translates into "speaking of NK, look at their shit airline"

Good thing that Colombia has more than enough coke to export

[QUOTE=Code3Response;50365931]That post was far from relevant. Somehow "the only other place they dont sell coke is NK" translates into "speaking of NK, look at their shit airline"[/QUOTE] I agree, N.K. and their airline food has nothing to do with this as far as I can see.

[QUOTE=Del91;50363499]Op got banned for being offtopic, what. This is pretty bad for Venezuela though, isn't coca cola one of the biggest employers in the country? I may be remembering an old article wrong.[/QUOTE] Coca Cola FEMSA operates one of the largest bottling plants in the country, located in Los Cortijos. Los Cortijos also has a Cerveceria Polar plant (Which also stopped production earlier this month due to lack of materials) as well as the headquarters of Polar. Altogether, those are roughly 30000-50000 jobs that are directly being affected by currency controls and Maduro's policies. Where is Maduro and what is he doing now to prevent this, you may ask? Well, he's doing military exercises with [I]civilians[/I] today! [img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjAUiYNUYAEPRoc.jpg[/img] Is that a bunch of old men with bolt action rifles, why, yes they are! They're the (not so) newly formed Bolivarian Militia. [img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ci_4-lrXAAY99Uq.jpg[/img] A closer look of the aforementioned old men with bolt action rifles. [img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ci_0xPkUYAA8hyn.jpg[/img] Careful with that trigger finger there, Yelitze! But well since you're the governor of Monagas I guess it's okay. [img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CjAsy1RWUAAMC9o.jpg[/img] And of course, the man himself. And yes, the "exercises" ended with that one shot. Right now I'm just wondering where those people who claimed Venezuela wasn't a dictatorship are.

[QUOTE=Big Bang;50366822]Right now I'm just wondering where those people who claimed Venezuela wasn't a dictatorship are.[/QUOTE] Probably hanging out with those who claimed that socialist policies didn't contribute to Venezuela's downfall.

[QUOTE=Headhumpy;50366899]Probably hanging out with those who claimed that socialist policies didn't contribute to Venezuela's downfall.[/QUOTE] Maybe we can get through one Venezuela thread without dragging this retarded argument out.

[QUOTE=Richoxen;50366978]Maybe we can get through one Venezuela thread without dragging this retarded argument out.[/QUOTE] its intrinsically linked with the country it's like trying to avoid talking about religious extremism in a thread about the islamic state

[QUOTE=Richoxen;50366978]Maybe we can get through one Venezuela thread without dragging this retarded argument out.[/QUOTE] Sadly, no.

[QUOTE=Richoxen;50366978]Maybe we can get through one Venezuela thread without dragging this retarded argument out.[/QUOTE] "Your argument is retarded. Why I think this is not important. I said so."

I was hoping this was because of Coca-Cola's horrific human rights abuses, but nope. It's practically corporate feudalism.

There was an interesting reddit post that explained exactly why coke did this: [QUOTE] Venezuela has always had issues with corruption, but it's not normally this much of an issue. I mean, lots of countries have issued with corruption. But, around twenty years ago a fellow by the name of Hugo Chavez was elected president some years after he tried to take the job by force in a coup that, obviously, failed. You see, Chavez was enamored with two things: Simon Bolivar and the wave of revolutions that cleared the Spanish from the New World, and international socialism. Now, Simon Bolivar was cut from much the same cloth as Thomas Jefferson or George Washington and is really a man who deserves remembering. But Chavez wanted to be Bolivar, just swap out the Spanish for the United States and Bolivar's liberalism for socialism. At first Chavez appeared to be doing a good job, but the man was a bit suspicious of absolutely everyone. He knew how easy it was to plot a coup and was constantly being convinced that one was brewing against him. This wasn't entirely unjustified because 2002 there was one. There were a lot of powerful people in the country that were unhappy with strained relations with US and EU and very close ties to Cuba to the point where the nation was basically trading oil for Cuban grade school textbooks and doctors. The coup ousted Chavez for about 47 hours before failing because the military wouldn't back the coup and the poor of Caracas came out to defend the Bolivarian Revolution. One of the primary causes of failure was a complete lack of backing from the US, and George W. Bush's insistence that the US not be involved. This was, in many ways, a breaking point. The man put up lead by the planners of the Coup was head of the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce. In short, businesses became the enemy as much as the US in the eyes of the Chavista movement. So, even though the State-run Oil company was 70% of the nations exports, it's leadership was culled and replaced by political supporters of Chavez. The media, who had not been a friend to Chavez prior to the coup, found itself being seized, forced to close, or force out of the nation altogether. A number of companies tied to the coup were outright seized. When the markets reacted poorly to this and the Bolivar (the currency of Venezuela) suffered price controls were put in place "fixing" the rate at which money can be (legally) exchanged for a different nation's currency. Things didn't go great after that. The price fixing made it hard to sell Venezuelan made stuff outside the country hard. For a while, at least, people managed and found local sources or tightened belts. There were the occasional nationalization of a newspaper or oil platform but Chavez was popular and on the ball enough to prevent things from getting worse. Then, in 2013 Chavez died. Everything got much worse. Nicolas Maduro was elected by a narrow margin, and he was Chavez's hand-picked successor. Not hand-picked because he was as good as Chavez, but because he was ideologically pure and a good friend. Maduro is, in every way, a pale echo of Chavez. He is not as talented, charismatic, or skilled as his friend and mentor. His inadequacy took a bad situation and made it much worse. There have been periodic problems since. For the first time shortages appeared on shelves in 2013, as many of the companies who had stockpiled money for imports ran out. In 2014 there were massive protests and riots. Last year a number of airlines either stopped accepting Bolivars in exchange for plane tickets or abandoned their routs to the country altogether because they couldn't buy the things they needed there and the state wouldn't let them convert Bolivars into Dollars. There were no resolutions to any of these problems. Instead, the police and military were able to "restore order" either by seizing the offending business and turning it over to more ideologically pure supporters of the government or by clearing the streets of protestors. The last independent news broadcasters were also forced out, meaning that the only news is that the Government is producing itself. What has happened here is the fact that his Coke subsidiary has run out of dollars with which to buy sugar. Normally, this isn't much of a problem in that the company can simply go to the bank and change local currencies (Bolivars) for the currency to buy imports (US Dollars), only because the price controls the banks don't have any dollars. The only export of any note that can bring in dollars is oil, which is controlled by the government. The problem is that the global price of oil has fallen by more than half and at the same time oil production has faltered under mismanagement and corruption on the part of those political appointees. So, the government just doesn't have the dollars to trade to the Coke bottler to buy sugar. The Coke subsidiary simply cannot function and has announced as such. This is the same thing that happened to the Clorox plant, beer manufacturer, and that consumer electronics chain last year. The Coke subsidiary will most likely be seized by Maduro and forced to "open" but still fail to produce output because they can't make anything without sugar. Coke, as a company, prides itself on being literally everywhere. They're in China and were in Russia towards the end of the Soviet Union. When World War II happened, they built portable bottling plants and shipped them around the South Pacific following US Marines, to ensure that they could always get a Coke. In terms of prevalence and hardiness Coke is the cockroach of the business world. It's always there, it survives just about anything. When Coke can't take it, you're talking apocalypse level disaster. That's actually pretty much where we are now in Venezuela. There was already a coup, and hundreds of thousands protesting for months. The party of Chavez and Maduro were already voted out of power, but are using "emergency" laws to maintain their positions. There's no democratic or undemocratic process left for the average person to try to fix things other than "burn it down-start from scratch". If Maduro was smart he would step down in favor of someone more capable and willing to compromise, but if Maduro was smart it wouldn't have gotten this far in the first place.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=J!NX;50361822]i genuinely wonder if we'll see people smuggling coke into the country imagine telling your friends that you smuggled coke into a country with a straight face[/QUOTE] I used to deal coke to kids at school. [sp]The canteen was banned from selling soft drink and I could undercut the milkbar by 50c per can and still double my profit.[/sp] Really though I'm hoping it doesn't get much worse for Venezuela. It looks like it's going to be a long road to recovery to put it mildly.

[quote]Earlier this week, President Nicolas Maduro repeated his threat to seize closed factories and nationalize them[/quote] What's he gonna do next, threaten to nationalize Lays?

[QUOTE=soccerskyman;50381501]I was hoping this was because of Coca-Cola's horrific human rights abuses, but nope. It's practically corporate feudalism.[/QUOTE] Corporate feudalism?

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;50382690]Corporate feudalism?[/QUOTE] Where the Campesino Winary pay a tyth to the Baron Chocolatiers Company who in turn pledge soldiers and pay taxes to Burger King.

[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;50382697]Where the Campesino Winary pay a tyth to the Baron Chocolatiers Company who in turn pledge soldiers and pay taxes to Burger King.[/QUOTE] I don't even know if there's a functioning corporation left in Venezuela. they're either all controlled by the state, have been bullied out of the country, or are effectively crippled and unable to do anything (even manufacture basic goods)

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;50382700]I don't even know if there's a functioning corporation left in Venezuela. they're either all controlled by the state, have been bullied out of the country, or are effectively crippled and unable to do anything (even manufacture basic goods)[/QUOTE] Give it a few months and a coup and it should be a nice, healthy, corporate run banana republic