Survivor leads China’s milk industry
In Hebei Province, where Sanlu was based, police had by Oct. 19rounded up 43 suspects who had worked at milking stations or been engaged in illegal production of a melamine compound known as “protein powder”. A couple of suspects reportedly had confessed their guilt. Xue Jianzhong, 55, who had produced and sold protein powder, said he knew melamine was poisonous. He was doing it to make money and he himself did not drink the milk mixed with melamine.
The official story explained why Sanyuan escaped the melamine scandal. The company had a nearly self-sufficient production chain. Its raw milk came largely, or 80 percent, from dairy farms that the company owned or had a stake in.
Recognizing the industry wisdom that “secure milk sources win the battle”, the company had invested heavily in building up dairy farms. Its Luhe Dairy Cattle Center owned 27 dairy farms with 35,000 heads of cattle, mostly Holsteins, which yielded 160 million tonnes of quality fresh milk a year.
The farms were run with a strict quality control system that covered all phases of operation, from procurement of animal feed, to the checking and caring of the animal’s physical conditions, to hygienic milking, to cooling and swift delivery of raw milk to processing plants.
Sanyuan milk products were free of antibiotics, the company claimed, and in terms of the numbers of somatic cells and bacteria, and contents of milk fat and milk proteins, the Luhe-sourced raw milk not only passed national norms, but also met European Union standards.
The raw milk Sanyuan procured from external sources, about 20 percent, was supplied by dairy farms of varied scales. Since 2001 Sanyuan had contracted only with cattle farms for its raw supply. That was because they believed a farm of scale could afford quality control. And the raw milk underwent two tests before being accepted.
The practice had also to do with industry wisdom that “milk was best in the cow’s breast”, which made processors skip unnecessary intermediate links in operation and bring milk to consumers in the shortest time possible.
Sanyuan milk was not 100 percent safe, though. Internet sources mentioned a melamine case uncovered in Qian’an, Hebei, which involved a subsidiary of Sanyuan. A company source confirmed the rumor. The city of Tangshan, where Qian’an was situated, was heavily hit in the melamine scandal.
“Apparently something had gone wrong in the collecting of raw milk. Our own quality check had spotted the problem and the small amount of questionable products was kept in the warehouse, when government examiners arrived,” he said.
Tags: dairy, industry, milk