Reuters: Pepsi stops production in Russia after a half of year of the promised date

PepsiCo Inc company has stopped production of Pepsi, 7UP and Mountain Dew in Russia almost six months after the organization announced such intentions.

Reuters writes about it.

Journalists of the agency visited dozens of supermarkets, retail stores and gyms in Moscow and beyond and found Pepsi bottles with printed production dates at factories in Russia. The last date on the Pepsi product was August 17.

In a statement to Reuters, the American company said it had stopped producing concentrates for PepsiCola, Mirinda, 7Up and Mountain Dew in Russia.

"Subsequently, all concentrates in Russia were exhausted and production stopped," a PepsiCo representative said on September 8. These were the first public comments on this matter after the company announced the suspension of production, sales and advertising in the Russian Federation in early March.

The spokesperson said this was "in line with the announcement we made in March 2022", but was tight-lipped on when exactly the sales would stop.

The continued production of Pepsi means that the soda is still widely available in Moscow, as well as in Vladivostok, the Far East, Krasnoyarsk and Siberia. The owner of a gym in Moscow told reporters that he ordered the Pepsi in mid-August.

• In 2021, Russia was the third largest market for Pepsi after the United States and Mexico. The company has been operating in the Russian Federation for over 50 years. On November 16, 1972, Pepsi announced the sale of its carbonated drink in the USSR from the following year. In exchange, the company received exclusive rights to sell "Stolichna" vodka in the USA.