Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09ASHGABAT1526
2009-11-27 10:18:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Ashgabat
Cable title:  

COLGATE-PALMOLIVE IN TURKMENISTAN

Tags:  ECON ETRD BTIO TX 
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UNCLAS ASHGABAT 001526 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCE/CEN; EEB
COMMERCE FOR EHOUSE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD BTIO TX
SUBJECT: COLGATE-PALMOLIVE IN TURKMENISTAN

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 001526

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCE/CEN; EEB
COMMERCE FOR EHOUSE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON ETRD BTIO TX
SUBJECT: COLGATE-PALMOLIVE IN TURKMENISTAN


1. Sensitive but unclassified. Not For Public Internet.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Turkish Anka Trading and Shipping
Company holds the only license for distributing Colgate and
Palmolive products in Turkmenistan. The group also partners
with Turkmen entrepreneurs to avoid high taxes for foreign
companies. At present, Colgate-Palmolive's advertising
throughout the country is limited. Colgate-Palmolive
distributors work with local and federal law enforcement to
identify and combat counterfeit products and their importers.
Colgate-Palmolive continues to compete with Russian and
Turkish toothpaste, soap, and detergent, and boasts a third of
the market share for higher-quality toothpaste and soap. END
SUMMARY.


3. (SBU) Turkish company Anka Trading and Shipping (ATS) is
the only authorized Colgate-Palmolive distributor in
Turkmenistan. The company partners with Turkmen businessmen
which means the company avoids high taxes required of foreign
companies. The distribution of fast moving consumer goods in
Turkmenistan is does require some regular interaction with tax
and customs officials, but an ATS representative claimed the
interaction is minimal. He added obtaining a license from the
Turkmen State Chemical Company Turkmenhimiya to distribute
domestic-use chemicals (cleaners, bleaches etc.) and personal
hygiene items were the most difficult hurdle ATS faced.


4. (SBU) According to the ATS rep, Turkmen consumers have few
complaints about quality of the authentic Colgate-Palmolive
goods. Complaints arise, he added, when consumers are duped
into buying counterfeit products. He noted that ATS assisted
local Customs and Police to identify importers, who knowingly
shipped counterfeit Colgate toothpaste to Turkmenistan from
China. The company rep stressed that China remains the main
source of counterfeit consumer goods to Turkmenistan.


5. (SBU) The ATS rep complained that Colgate considers
Turkmenistan's market too small to justify costly advertising
campaigns which target school and university-age consumers
like it does in Russia. According to the rep, Colgate
provides dental hygiene classes in Russian schools and
universities and offers free samples to students as it
bombards the airwaves with commercials aimed at Russian young
people, noting that such campaigns are extremely successful.
Today, Colgate-Palmolive offers Turkmen consumers around one
hundred and fifty-five various products in eight product
categories. The distributor rep boasted that Colgate-
Palmolive holds 30 percent of the toothpaste market for
products that cost more than $2, and 30 percent of the hand
soap market for soap which costs more than $0.45 per bar.
Colgate-Palmolive's major competitors in Turkmenistan are
cheaper Russian and Turkish soaps, detergents and toothpastes.


6. (SBU) Colgate-Palmolive also reaches Turkmen audiences via
Russian language advertising available on Russian satellite TV
stations, which are still widely watched throughout the
country. Colgate-Palmolive also engages Turkmen TV channels
in an effort to reach potential consumers in smaller towns and
rural areas.


7. (SBU) COMMENT: Western consumer goods and hygiene products
are slowly gaining in popularity in Turkmenistan. To date,
Colgate-Palmolive does not deal directly in Turkmenistan,
given the country's smaller customer base, and immense
bureaucracy. Nevertheless, the company's distributor seems
willing to slowly chip away at Russian and Turkish product
dominance, emphasizing that although Colgate-Palmolive
products are more expensive, the quality is worth the extra
cost. END COMMENT.

CURRAN