RIYADH,
August 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iranian soft drink Zamzam
Cola, considered a viable Islamic substitute for U.S. global rivals
Pepsi and Coca Cola, has started selling in the Saudi markets, the
product agent said Tuesday, August 20.
“We
started marketing the soft drink in the eastern province last week. We
plan to extend distribution to other areas within a month’s time,”
Hussein Baqshi, general manager of Al-Majarah Soft Drinks Co., told
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Al-Majarah
fought off stiff competition from several Saudi companies to win
exclusive rights to distribute Zamzam Cola, named after Mecca’s Zamzam
holy spring water.
The
sole agent for the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula is Bahrain’s Ali Khalil
Akbar Lari Group.
Two
shipments of the cola have already arrived from Iran at King Abdul Aziz
Port in Dammam on the Gulf, and the company plans more imports due to
“highly encouraging sales,” Baqshi said.
In
the first week, the company distributed about four million one-liter
bottles but high demand has forced them to place import orders for
several million more bottles, he said.
Preparations
are underway to establish a bottling factory in neighboring Bahrain, and
Al-Majarah has already requested the Iranian parent company for a
licence to set up a similar factory in Saudi Arabia, Baqshi said.
In
marked contrast with the close relations at official level between
Washington and Manama, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and a
"major non-NATO ally" of the United States, anti-U.S.
sentiment spread like wildfire in Bahrain after Israel launched a
massive military offensive in the West Bank in late March.
Bahrainis
staged scores of anti-Israel and anti-U.S. demonstrations at the peak of
the Israeli offensive, in one case triggering a crackdown by security
forces when protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs at the U.S.
embassy in Manama.
Sale
of U.S. products, especially soft drinks and fast food chains, was
adversely affected due to a powerful boycott campaign launched in Saudi
Arabia and the rest of the Arab world for perceived U.S. support of
Israel
