From increased energy to carbon dioxide deficiency: because sparkling water risks disappearing from supermarkets

“there Carbon Dioxide It can’t be found anywhere and all of our competitors are in the same position as well. We are miserable.” These are the words Alberto BurtonPresident and CEO of Santana waterwhich deplores the effects of high prices on raw materials and drought on the sources that make it possible to produce sparkling water. Italians liked it very much, in supermarkets recorded an increase of 6.4 percent (NielsenIQ data) In sales between January and May, the dangers of sparkling water from supermarkets are now gone. Warning not only for Italy, but for the whole of Europe. Even the French group Air Liquidewhich produces carbon dioxide, confirmed the problem.

Causes and effects

The main problem, which we have been facing since the end of last year and which recurs periodically, is the difficulty of findingCarbon Dioxide For food and drinks. Burton, at the helm of Santana and the first European producer of sparkling water, explained that by the end of 2021, the problem had been resolved. Now, however, “once the supermarket and discount stores are out of stock, there will be no more bottles to sell.”

This deficiency is one of the consequencesIncreasing costs of energy, plastic, aluminum and glass And transportation problems that limit the natural extraction of raw materials on the one hand, and on the other hand, the industrial production of beverages. Thus, the range of distribution, which takes carbon dioxide from the ground and modifies it to be fed into the cylinders, is slowing, but most at risk is metamorphism, the process in which the raw material is processed to be then marketed.

Soft drinks and sweets, and the sugar tax remains at risk

The soft drinks sector, both non-alcoholic and non-alcoholic, is disturbed, as is the confectionery sector. Carbon dioxide is also used to maintain and regulate the temperature of food. But not only. Logistics also benefits from this raw material: carbon dioxide is used for refrigerated transport. Giancarlo Perinipresident of Assobibe, an association Confindustria Which represents Italy’s soft drink producers, has in fact highlighted how the sector is suffering as well.

“The companies I represent are in dire straits,” he said. Explaining that in addition to problems with increasing energy, there are also problems with finding raw materials for product packaging. «Companies – adds Perini – in a few months will also be taxed by sugar tax (sugar tax) on all their products. With inevitable effects on prices, they are already growing at the moment of the explosion of inflation, and therefore on volumes. We’re asking the government to at least act on this, because the tax should be scrapped to give businesses a little bit of relief and really try to start over.”

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