The concept of supply chain resilience and security has become top of mind for many companies in the food and beverage space in the past few years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted painful gaps in global logistics and operations.
This has been no different for beverage giant Coca-Cola, and the firm’s ASEAN & South Pacific Operating Unit President Selman Careaga highlighted that it has taken steps to increase localised operations in order to minimise future disruptions to supply chain operations.
“Food security and supply chain resilience are more than just an agricultural challenge, but a human, societal and business one,” he told the floor at the recent APAC Agri-Food Innovation Summit 2025 in Singapore.
“Coca-Cola operates one of the biggest food supply chains in the world, sourcing key ingredients such as sugar, fruits, coffee, tea, corn, soy and many others from over 200,000 partners including MNCs as well as smallholder farmers – and we have come to realise the importance of having localised, decentralised manufacturing in order to ensure business resilience.”
Careaga highlighted that complications arising both during and after the pandemic had sorely tested many of Coca-Cola’s systems.
“In APAC, we found that juice supply in particular has been heavily affected by a myriad of challenges from logistical complications to rapid climate change – reduced orange supply in one part of the world leads to a lack of juice supply in another,” he said.
“It’s a clear reminder of how interconnected and vulnerable our food systems are, and increasing challenges such as export restrictions are showing that adapting our supply chains to be more resilient is no longer an optional exercise but an essential one.”
The firm has already taken measures to decrease its dependency on external factors.
“Our Singapore concentrate production plant for example has been recognised by the World Economic Forum as a global lighthouse in this area – there is a strong focus on both sustainability and automation in this plant, from AI-driven dynamic scheduling to autonomous vehicle usage to nano chatbot integration and more,” he said.
The plant’s location in South East Asia also places it close to commodity-producing countries in the region such as Vietnam and Indonesia, cutting down supply chain length and complexities as well as carbon footprint.
“The other important point here when it comes to improving supply chain resilience for us is innovation all throughout the chain from seed to shelf,” Careaga added.
“There are many aspects to consider in this regard and we are working to tick all the boxes – at the production end, we’re collaborating with firms to develop AI-driven novel crops like higher-yield sugar cane which we are testing in Australia; whereas further down the supply chain we are also working to meet consumer demands by expanding our zero-sugar and low-sugar portfolio across the APAC region.”
Coca-Cola is also involved in various collaborative platforms in order to accelerate these innovation efforts – for example the 100 Plus Accelerator Programme that brings MNCs and startups together, and projects with the World Bank for better water utilisation.
Sustainable sourcing
At the core of supply chain resilience is supply chain sustainability, and this has become an important consideration for many food and beverage companies in recent years including Coca-Cola.
“We are working to increase sustainable sourcing volumes all across the company’s supply chains and are making good progress – our latest numbers show we have 100% sustainably-sourced soybeans, close to 100% for coffee, and close to 90% for oranges,” he added.
“Sustainable sourcing efforts are crucial in large supply chains as these help to not only improve resilience but also support farming communities and protect natural ecosystems, very valuable and important in producer markets in the Asia Pacific region especially in a time when many food systems are being challenged by rapid climate changes and challenges like drought.”
