China has clamped down on importers of infant formula exploiting the nation’s hunger for foreign brands, as part of an effort to restore the local dairy industry’s share of the national market.
A 2008 scandal in which domestic milk was deliberately adulterated with melamine, a byproduct of coal, in order to fake protein tests is still hurting Chinese dairy producers more than five years on. Foreign infant formula brands now account for half the market, up from about 30 per cent before the revelation that at least six infants had died and 300,000 were made ill after drinking tainted formula.
Since then, Chinese parents have snapped up infant formula with any international connection, allowing foreign brands to charge a hefty premium and spawning a homegrown industry of smugglers hauling boxes of formula into the country. Some Chinese companies have even set up shop in New Zealand repacking bulk formula and selling it into China as a foreign brand.