SINGAPORE: Despite the diabetes and obesity problem in Singapore, the United States and other parts of the world, The Coca-Cola Company will always make available its classic Coke in its original formula – with the full amount of sugar.

That is nine teaspoons of sugar in a 330-millilitre can, and Coca-Cola president and chief executive officer James Quincey told Channel NewsAsia’s Conversation With that “there’s nothing wrong with it if it’s part of a balanced diet”.

Singapore’s guideline on the daily intake of added sugar is that it should not exceed 10 teaspoons.

For a 330ml canned drink, this is equivalent to the 12-per-cent sugar cap that the seven biggest soft drink firms here, including Coca-Cola, agreed to meet by 2020 in a pact with the Government.

And for a “large part of the population”, that sugar content is not a problem, said Mr Quincey.

READ: 7 major soft drinks manufacturers in Singapore to reduce sugar content in drinks

But he admits that beverage companies like his may have been too slow to give consumers a wider range of healthier options.

Coca-Cola is making up for lost time by focusing on “reformulating some of our products, on innovation, on making packages smaller and on diversifying the portfolio into new drinks”.

“We’re not perfect, but we’re very clear now on what we need to do,” he added. That includes launching tea products with no sugar and making a “big push” with its Coke No Sugar cola.

“Clearly, some people need to take more action than others, so that’s why we’re investing strongly (in the new cola),” said Mr Quincey, adding that the product is growing by “double digits everywhere around the world, including Singapore”.

SUGAR TAX ‘NOT GOING TO HELP’

Governments are implementing sugar taxes, however, because they think manufacturers are not doing enough. This might be on the cards in Singapore too.

And the likely result of such a tax is that sales would go down, admitted Mr Quincey, who questioned whether the objective of “trying to help people rebalance the way they consume” would be achieved.

“I think the data coming out is (showing that) very narrow taxes on few categories in the context of food and beverages, where there are lots of other options for people to go for, aren’t proving to be effective,” he said.

“There’s a recent study done on the Californian tax, and what it showed is, of course, the sugared sparkling beverages went down. But people bought other food and beverages, so their total calories went up. So it’s not going to help solve it.”

The solution, he added, would involve “many stakeholders”, including manufacturers playing their part. “We embrace that idea. We want to be a part of helping to solve that problem, and yet allow people to enjoy great-tasting beverages.”

COKE’S SECRET INGREDIENT

It has been said that the formula for Coca-Cola, which was invented in 1886 in the American state of Georgia, is probably the most closely kept secret in the food and drink industry.

And the way Mr Quincey described how he was let in on it suggested as much. “There’s a secret ingredient. There’s a secret recipe, and it’s held in a very large safe,” he said with a smile, when asked.

Despite having worked in the company for more than two decades, even as its chief operating officer, he declared that it was only after he became its CEO last year that he was told the secret, in cloak-and-dagger fashion.

“We make a special trip to the secret location where we have this huge fortress room – multiple feet thick of concrete cube,” he said.

In there is a filing cabinet with the files. And it’s all written down in old typewriting and scribblings on it … And you have to sign the register, (stating) I came in on this day and I read this bit.

Signatures “going back decades” are still there on the page, and the record shows that only “a few tens of people” have known the secret in the company’s long history.

While he called this “part of the magic” of the company, some may wonder if Coca-Cola is perfectly all right to drink, with YouTube videos even showing how the soda can be used to scour toilets.

When this was put to him, he said: “Any product, whether it’s Coke or any of the other beverages, is either slightly acidic or slightly alkaline.

“If you want the simple experiment, get a lemon, squeeze some lemon juice and then try it with an orange, or try it with some pineapple juice. You’ll find that all of those liquids, ultimately, will wipe stuff off. So beverages are totally safe to consume.”

Watch the full interview on Conversation With here. New episodes every Thursday at 8.30pm SG/HK.

SINGAPORE: Shopee, the e-commerce site by Singapore tech firm Sea, will begin charging sellers a 1 per cent transaction fee for all successful orders beginning next month.

An email was sent out on Wednesday (Jul 11) to notify users of this new charge. Details of what the transaction fee entails can also be found under Shopee’s Help Centre section. 

The company told Channel NewsAsia in a statement that the 1 per cent transaction fee is for processing and handling payments, and that Shopee remains a zero-commission platform. It is applicable to sellers based in Singapore from Aug 1, following on the heels of Taiwan last year.

The fee will be applied on all successful transactions through bank transfers, credit card and Shopee Wallet payments, its website stated.

“While the charging of transaction fees is an industry-wide standard, Shopee made sure to only introduce it at a point where we felt our users were ready,” the company said.

“The move to introduce transaction fees at this point in time highlights our shift in focus from merely growing the platform to building a more sustainable e-commerce ecosystem for our users in the long run, and also further cements our position as an established e-commerce player in the market.”

It also emphasised its range of free services for sellers, including free listing and shipping. These have been “very well received” and there are no plans to stop them, it said.

Shopee has more than 1.5 million users in Singapore, the company said. 

Rival platforms, too, impose fees on sellers through a variety of methods. Qoo10, for instance, charged a range between 7 per cent and 12 per cent of the total transaction amount depending on the item’s price and seller grade.

Shopee is part of US-listed company Sea, which announced in June it had raised US$575 million (S$780.2 million) in fresh funds that it intended to use for business expansion and other general corporate purposes, including to support the growth of its e-commerce platform. 

The company, formerly known as Garena, reported a net loss of US$216.2 million for its first quarter this year, nearly triple the loss it logged in the same period last year.

SINGAPORE: Despite the diabetes and obesity problem in Singapore, the United States and other parts of the world, The Coca-Cola Company will always make available its classic Coke in its original formula – with the full amount of sugar.

That is nine teaspoons of sugar in a 330-millilitre can, and Coca-Cola president and chief executive officer James Quincey told Channel NewsAsia’s Conversation With that “there’s nothing wrong with it if it’s part of a balanced diet”.

Singapore’s guideline on the daily intake of added sugar is that it should not exceed 10 teaspoons.

For a 330ml canned drink, this is equivalent to the 12-per-cent sugar cap that the seven biggest soft drink firms here, including Coca-Cola, agreed to meet by 2020 in a pact with the Government.

READ: 7 major soft drinks manufacturers in Singapore to reduce sugar content in drinks

And for a “large part of the population”, that sugar content is not a problem, said Mr Quincey. But he admits that beverage companies like his may have been too slow to give consumers a wider range of healthier options.

Coca-Cola is making up for lost time by focusing on “reformulating some of our products, on innovation, on making packages smaller and on diversifying the portfolio into new drinks”.

“We’re not perfect, but we’re very clear now on what we need to do,” he added. That includes launching tea products with no sugar and making a “big push” with its Coke No Sugar cola.

“Clearly, some people need to take more action than others, so that’s why we’re investing strongly (in the new cola),” said Mr Quincey, adding that the product is growing by “double digits everywhere around the world, including Singapore”.

SUGAR TAX ‘NOT GOING TO HELP’

Governments are implementing sugar taxes, however, because they think manufacturers are not doing enough. This might be on the cards in Singapore too.

And the likely result of such a tax is that sales would go down, admitted Mr Quincey, who questioned whether the objective of “trying to help people rebalance the way they consume” would be achieved.

“I think the data coming out is (showing that) very narrow taxes on few categories in the context of food and beverages, where there are lots of other options for people to go for, aren’t proving to be effective,” he said.

“There’s a recent study done on the Californian tax, and what it showed is, of course, the sugared sparkling beverages went down. But people bought other food and beverages, so their total calories went up. So it’s not going to help solve it.”

The solution, he added, would involve “many stakeholders”, including manufacturers playing their part. “We embrace that idea. We want to be a part of helping to solve that problem, and yet allow people to enjoy great-tasting beverages.”

COKE’S SECRET INGREDIENT

It has been said that the formula for Coca-Cola, which was invented in 1886 in the American state of Georgia, is probably the most closely kept secret in the food and drink industry.

And the way Mr Quincey described how he was let in on it suggested as much. “There’s a secret ingredient. There’s a secret recipe, and it’s held in a very large safe,” he said with a smile, when asked.

Despite having worked in the company for more than two decades, even as its chief operating officer, he declared that it was only after he became its CEO last year that he was told the secret, in cloak-and-dagger fashion.

“We make a special trip to the secret location where we have this huge fortress room – multiple feet thick of concrete cube,” he said.

In there is a filing cabinet with the files. And it’s all written down in old typewriting and scribblings on it … And you have to sign the register, (stating) I came in on this day and I read this bit.

Signatures “going back decades” are still there on the page, and the record shows that only “a few tens of people” have known the secret in the company’s long history.

While he called this “part of the magic” of the company, some may wonder if Coca-Cola is perfectly all right to drink, with YouTube videos even showing how the soda can be used to scour toilets.

When this was put to him, he said: “Any product, whether it’s Coke or any of the other beverages, is either slightly acidic or slightly alkaline.

“If you want the simple experiment, get a lemon, squeeze some lemon juice and then try it with an orange, or try it with some pineapple juice. You’ll find that all of those liquids, ultimately, will wipe stuff off. So beverages are totally safe to consume.”

Watch the full interview on Conversation With here. New episodes every Thursday at 8.30pm SG/HK.

SINGAPORE: Singapore and South Korea have agreed to expand cooperation in areas like trade, investment and the environment, as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and South Korean President Moon Jae-in witnessed the exchange of six Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) on Thursday (Jul 12).

Mr Moon is in Singapore on a three-day state visit at the invitation of President Halimah Yacob. 

Speaking during a joint news conference with Mr Lee, Mr Moon noted that Singapore is South Korea’s second largest trade partner among ASEAN countries. 

“The potential for development will be further magnified if we make the best use of our mutually complementary economic structures,” he said.

In 2017, South Korea was Singapore’s ninth largest trading partner, with bilateral trade in goods amounting to S$45.4 billion, according to information from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).

Three of the six MOUs were exchanged by MTI and South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

In the first MOU, Singapore and South Korea will launch a Korea-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (KSFTA) implementation review within six months. Both countries will also reaffirm commitment to work towards a substantive conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations by this year, MTI said in a news release.

The second MOU aims to enhance cooperation in medical and biotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, and Industrial Internet of Things, while the third will allow both countries to pursue mutual cooperation in smart grids, as well as energy security and Internet of Things applications in energy technologies.

Enterprise Singapore also exchanged two MOUs – the first with South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs & Startups (MSS), and the second with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA).

The MOUs, said Enterprise Singapore in a news release, establish new partnerships that drive collaboration and co-innovation between Korean and Singapore enterprises, especially among small and medium enterprises and start-ups.

The last MOU, on environmental cooperation, promotes bilateral collaboration in areas such as air and noise pollution, water resource management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as waste and hazardous waste management, according to a release from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. 

Mr Moon was hosted to lunch by Mr Lee after the exchange of MOUs. He and his wife, Madam Kim Jung-sook, also had an orchid named in their honour at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.