Survivor leads China’s milk industry
At a press conference held on Sept. 20, Sanyuan Foods general manager Niu Liping promised stable prices for all its milk products. He also pledged to boost production to secure supply, intensify quality checks, and pleaded with consumers not to lose faith in domestic products.
The general manager looked not at all happy with the advantageous position his company was placed in the wake of the melamine scandal. Instead, he expressed a deep regret. “It’s not easy for the country’s milk industry to develop in the current state. It’s an outcome of generations of effort. Sanyuan was deeply concerned about the damaging effect of the latest incident,” he said.
Engaged in the milk business for more than 45 years, Sanyuan had market strongholds in northern China region including Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Anhui provinces. The company was cautious in enlarging its business. As a result it was losing ground to aggressive later-comers such as Mengniu, Yili, and Sanlu. Sanyuan’s market share in Beijing dropped to below 40 percent last year from the 80percent of about a decade ago.
Sanyuan Foods business division chief Ma Guowu said the current market share in Beijing climbed to about 50 percent. “It could have jumped further, if the company was not short of capacity,” he said.
“Honest operation will be rewarded in the end,” said Auntie Wang, a loyal Sanyuan milk consumer at Jingkelong Supermarket in Tianshuiyuan, Beijing.
SAFE MILK SOURCE WINS THE BATTLE
The extensive dairy scandal exposed flaws in China’s whole milk and milk products supply system - flaws which killed babies, sickened tens of thousands of others and led to an embarrassing international scandal, the effects of which on China’s reputation and the reputation of its goods have not yet been fully played out.
According to official accounts, toxic chemical melamine was put into milk products at an early stage. To begin with, milk producers procured raw materials using a standard that graded fresh liquid milk by its protein content. Varied grades of milk were paid different prices. However, the test method commonly used couldn’t distinguish milk proteins from other proteins. If melamine was added to milk, it produced proteins that could cheat testing.
It was assumed that dairy farmers might have a motive to cheat by using melamine. But in most cases, farmers sold milk directly to the milking station — agencies run by all sorts of people. The latter paid the farmer and sold truckloads of fresh raw milk to companies like Sanlu. Milking stations were the major culprit in this scandal, the official report said, because in order to cheat the milk company, melamine must be mixed into milk shortly before the test. Earlier addition would be detected.
Tags: dairy, industry, milk