(CN) Tainted dairy industry needs a total overhaul

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

LEADER

Sep 21, 2008

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The measures introduced by mainland authorities in response to the widening

scandal over adulterated milk have, so far, focused on curbing the risk to

health, punishing those responsible and helping the victims. There have been

crackdowns on dairy companies, products recalled, suspects detained and

promises made to help the unfortunate victims. Now President Hu Jintao has

slammed culpable officials.

This is a necessary reaction to the crisis. But it has become clear that

there are problems which are endemic in the dairy industry. The process by

which milk is produced is full of loopholes and wide open to abuse. Beijing

must take responsibility for the flawed set-up and embark on radical reforms

to modernise the industry, improve quality and ensure that inherent faults

in the system are eradicated.

 

This newspaper's reporters have uncovered in investigative reports that the

supply and production chains have been compromised for years. In Inner

Mongolia , the hub of the dairy industry, harmful substances, including

melamine, are routinely added to substandard milk sold by farmers to

middlemen. At the end of the chain, major dairy companies buy this milk at a

discount. They then process and package the finished products and ship them

across the country. This is not the image visitors see at showcase

production plants run by Mengniu and Yili, two dominant dairy producers on

the mainland and the only corporate buyers in Inner Mongolia. There,

visitors see only hi-tech equipment and well-fed, pampered, cows. The

contrast is striking.

 

Mengniu appears capable of producing quality milk for export. This milk is,

according to the company, drawn from larger farms and is therefore safer.

Understandably, mainland customers are asking whether their health is less

important than that of consumers elsewhere. But the production of better

quality milk from larger farms might be a pointer to the way forward.

 

Senior testing officials in Beijing admit there have been no protocols for

checking melamine contamination, until now. But the problem goes far beyond

the lack of safety tests and standards. It is one of economic organisation.

Unlike overseas, the mainland organises the industry as a labour-intensive

one, instead of relying on capital and technology. Small-scale farmers have

little knowledge of modern husbandry. When cows are diseased, the milk they

produce has high bacterial counts and low nutrient levels. So the animals

are fed antibiotics. Preservatives and other dangerous chemicals such as

melamine are mixed with the milk to make it last longer, taste better and

register higher nutrient values. It seems agents who serve as go-betweens

for farmers and dairy companies are especially culpable in this corrupt

process. The companies are so powerful that local officials are either

afraid to interfere or, more likely, are in collusion with them. This seems

to have been the case with the Sanlu Group, which tried to cover up its

melamine-tainted baby formula with help from local officials.

 

Beijing must step in to reform and restructure the whole industry. The

middlemen need to be eliminated; economies of scale should be introduced;

farmers need to be better trained and given higher commercial incentives to

raise healthy cows and produce high-quality milk. If the dairy companies can

produce quality milk for export, they must be made to apply the same

standards to their domestic products. Mainland consumers deserve nothing

less.