Coca-Cola has bowed to pressure over where it gets its sugar from, announcing that it will take a zero tolerance approach to illegal land grabs for sugar plantations in Cambodia and Brazil.
The company, along with Pepsi and Associated British Foods, has been targeted in an Oxfam compaign after the charity said it had evidence that people were being violently evicted to make way for the sugar industry.
While the companies aren't responsible for the evictions, the campaign called on them to put pressure on their suppliers.
Oxfam's executive director Barry Coates told Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint programme on Monday that Coca-Cola's move is a good step forward.
"The first thing is for them to be absolutely tough with their suppliers about what's acceptable and what isn't acceptable in practice on land grabs and for suppliers to then disclose what they're doing and abide by Coke's policies.
"We will be monitoring in order to make sure that they follow through on these commitments."
