www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Opinion
Home / Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

For a healthy milk food competition

By Zhu Jin | China Daily | Updated: 2013-07-18 08:17

The government recently launched an investigation into the alleged monopoly practices of some foreign baby milk formula producers, which is widely viewed as an official intervention to protect domestic companies.

The prices of the baby milk powder produced by some foreign brands have increased by up to 60 percent. But this is only a symptom of the problem facing domestic producers. Foreign brands have raised their prices because of the demand for their products. Foreign baby milk formulas cost twice as much as domestic products, but Chinese parents still buy them because they believe them to be safer than local ones.

Despite the growing market for baby milk formula, domestic brands have failed to cash in on the demand because they have lost the trust of consumers after a series of serious food safety scandals since 2008, when at least six children died and thousands fell ill after consuming chemical-contaminated milk powder. Although the market for milk formula grew by 25 percent from 2011 to 2012, the sales of Mengniu, one of China's largest producers of dairy products, declined by 3.5 percent, because it was one of companies involved in the 2008 milk scandal.

The Chinese mainland market for infant formula is huge. It has grown by more than 20 percent a year since 2007 - even in 2008, which saw the worst baby food scandal, the market grew by 33 percent. The prime reason for the growing infant formula market is that only 28 percent of the infants aged up to 6 months are breast-fed on the mainland and the number of mothers choosing to breast-feed is declining.

Euromonitor estimates that the market for baby milk formula will double in four years and will be worth $25 billion, with sales on the mainland accounting for 50 percent of the global market.

But despite allegations that some foreign brands have been taking advantage of parents' growing trust in the safety of their products, consumers are not likely to fall back on domestic brands until they are convinced that their products are as safe as those produced by their foreign counterparts. That's why Mengniu recently finalized a joint venture agreement with French food producer Danone, which realized 16.1 percent increase in its infant nutrition products globally in the first quarter of 2013.

However, rebuilding their reputations is likely to be an uphill task for many domestic brands.

The anti-monopoly investigation launched by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, focuses on the alleged price fixing and anti-competition practices of some baby milk formula producers. But the bottom line is, consumers care more about the safety of their children than the price of infant formula, which means that government intervention to ensure the safety of domestic products is more important than the current price-fixing probe. In fact, government intervention could actually prove counterproductive if it is only aimed at helping domestic brands.

Jian Aihua, a food industry researcher with CIConsulting, says the high price of foreign brands has worked to the advantage of domestic milk powder producers in second- and third-tier cities where the average income is lower than in first-tier cities. "If the prices of infant formulas produced by foreign brands drop (foreign companies have responded to the anti-trust probe by lowering prices by up to 20 percent) and domestic brands cannot win back the trust of consumers, the market share of foreign brands, which is now less than 50 percent, will become larger." Jian says.

It is not just the safety issue that is a challenge for domestic companies. Growing incomes in China and its expanding middle class may also strengthen customers' preference for foreign brands, says Mei Xinyu, a senior researcher with the Ministry of Commerce. With China's per capita income rising, China's middle class consumers are simply following the global consumption trend by preferring better, safer infant formulas.

The government should focus on protecting consumers' rights and interests, instead of only trying to protect domestic milk formula producers. The rising prices of foreign infant formulas can be explained by a simple law of economics: the demand for them is higher than the supply. Therefore, the government has to take measures to ensure domestic infant formulas are absolutely safe to enable domestic brands to win back people's trust and compete with their foreign counterparts on the strength of their products' quality as well as price.

The author is a writer with China Daily.

E-mail: zhujin@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 07/18/2013 page9)

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产在线观看精品香蕉v区 国产在线观看免费人成小说 | 日韩一级欧美一级在线观看 | 99精品热女视频专线 | 国产成人福利视频在线观看 | 久久国产影视 | 久香草视频在线观看 | 久久厕所 | 韩国美女爽快毛片免费 | 在线精品免费视频 | 天天夜夜久久 | 成人欧美在线观看 | fc2在线播放 | 久久国产一片免费观看 | 精品成人一区二区三区免费视频 | 国产成人刺激视频在线观看 | 日本加勒比在线播放 | 手机看片在线 | 中文字幕日韩精品中文区 | 欧美日韩在线视频观看 | 亚洲精品456在线播放无广告 | 免费看特级毛片 | 久久国产精品一国产精品 | 亚洲国产精品看片在线观看 | 国产大臿蕉香蕉大视频女 | 成人午夜视频免费观看 | 久久久久久久99精品免费观看 | 日本高清毛片视频在线看 | 亚洲成a人片在线观看中文 亚洲成a人片在线观看中文!!! | 黄色网址免费在线 | 日本高清色视频www 日本高清在线精品一区二区三区 | 亚洲精品中文一区不卡 | 在线观看亚洲成人 | 色偷偷亚洲女人天堂观看欧 | 国产精品夜色视频一区二区 | 国产精品二区页在线播放 | 午夜大片免费男女爽爽影院久久 | 国产成人精品久久一区二区三区 | 成人毛片免费观看视频在线 | 国产大片在线看 | 国产精品揄拍一区二区久久 | 国产网友自拍 |