The Food Biz hosts Kristyn Tarpey and Ryan Nelson are back this week to discuss the latest Food and Beverage earnings reports, including Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Which leads to the hosts tackling the age-old question - Coke or Pepsi?

Kristyn revealed that Coke’s earnings and revenue fell short of Pepsi’s even though they were higher than Wall Street’s expectations. Ryan thinks this is because they have a much larger involvement in other areas of the market, like snacks. Even though Pepsi had higher earnings and revenue, it also took a hit in other areas, possibly caused by the war in Ukraine.

In April, many large U.S. companies either scaled back, suspended, or exited their Russian involvement, including Pepsi. Russia is Pepsi’s second-largest international market after Mexico. The company generated $3.4 billion in Russia in 2021, about 4% of its $79 billion in revenue. 

The hosts discuss the tough decisions these companies have had to make - please shareholders and keep earning all revenue possible, even if it means continue supplying Russians or take the moral high ground, pull out of Russia, and risk falling short revenue-wise. 
 

They also touch on the continuously rising prices of wheat and how it’s impacting food manufacturing, restaurants, the commodity market as a whole, and the rest of the economy. Ryan mentions that Indonesia has now banned palm oil exports, which is in half of the food and products used by the average consumer. The rest of the world will feel the impact immensely. 
 

According to Reuters, household product and food companies, including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and Unilever, are huge purchasers of palm oil. Mondelez International accounts for 0.5% of palm oil consumption globally, according to its website. 

Make sure to listen to the entire episode on Spotify or in the Apple Podcasts App!  While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe. Also, feel free to reach out to us by email at news@barchart.com with any discussion topics, questions, comments, or overall feedback; Ryan and Kristyn would love to hear from you!