This blog is interesting because it is about the smuggling of milk formula. People in Hong Kong and Australia find it difficult to buy baby formula because buyers from China are cleaning out shelves and “smuggling” them back home. To the Chinese consumers, milk of foreign brands means safety and confidence.
In fact, this is the result of milk formula being tainted with Melamine affected new-born babies, causing 6 death and 300,000 babies to have kidney problems. [1] Why would managers of the Chinese milk industries risk damaging their brand name like this? They should know such crime would be exposed one day. Are they just looking at short-term profit and neglecting long-term benefits?
For things to be eaten, the first thing consumers concern is that it should not be toxic. “We spent half of our wages buying the foreign formula,” a parent explained, just because “some of my neighbors’ children who survived 10 years ….have suffered from abnormal mental development. My sole wish for my two children is that they can grow up healthily.” [2]
Ironically, an official punished for the milk scandal has been promoted to deputy president of the State Food and Drug Administration in 2012. [3] Maybe this is the reason why people in China do not trust their local brands.
[1]Tainted-baby-milk scandal in China