News Milk
Does China trust its own baby milk powder again?
After years, Chinese consumers are said to have more confidence in Chinese-made dairy products than in imported products. This is according to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing.
Top Agrar reports that after 12 years, Chinese consumers have regained confidence in the country's own dairy products. This is according to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing, which presented the results at the end of August this year at the conference of the National Dairy Science and Technology Innovation Alliance in Beijing.
Of the participating respondents, 47,6% indicate that they opt for well-known, domestic products. Only 5% opt for imported products and 43,7% go for certified products.
Better quality and reliability
The ministry survey shows that three quarters of respondents believe that domestic milk products are very safe or relatively safe and that the quality and reliability are better than those of imported products. According to figures from Chinese laboratories, Chinese milk meets European requirements with regard to cell count and bacterial count.
Striking change
In 2008, China was rocked by a scandal within its own dairy sector. The Chinese dairy company Sanlu was found to add the chemical melanin to its baby milk powder to mask that the milk had been diluted with water. At least 6 babies died from the poisonous substance and nearly 300.000 children became ill.
After this discovery, the tide turned for the Chinese dairy industry. The domestic consumer opted for foreign dairy products, confidence had been damaged. In 2018, several studies showed that the Chinese had still not regained confidence. And even in February of this year, the South China Morning Post published another article confirming that most parents still chose foreign products. It is therefore striking that the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture now, six months later, is coming up with figures that show quite different.
Dairy sector growth
Another noise from the dairy sector that may indicate a growing demand for domestic products comes from the dairy herd. According to Rabobank, China plans to increase its herd by at least 700.000 dairy cows. A significant increase, in 2019 the republic still had 6,1 million dairy cows.
Production is also increasing according to figures from the Italian CLAL. In 2019, the country produced more than 32 million tons of milk, almost 1,5 million tons more than in 2018. According to CLAL, total milk powder (skimmed, whole and baby milk powder) production has been declining for a number of years. In 2018, production was only 735.000 tons of milk powder, while in 2017 more than 1,3 million tons were produced. Imports of baby milk powder have also been increasing since 2016. China imported a total of 356.000 tons of the product.
Jorine Cosse
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