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Chinese buy imported milk from Vietnam border province
Many Chinese parents living along China-Vietnam border are buying diary products imported from the US or the E.U. from shops in the northern province of Lao Cai.
The new trend follows the melamine contamination scandal in which Chinese made formula milk has left four infants dead and 53,000 children sick.
Melamine, a chemical compound used in the manufacture of plastic, makes milk appear rich in protein. No national or international authority has approved the use of melamine for human consumption.
Mai Phuong Thuy, a Sai Gon Mark supermarket staff, said Chinese customers had often purchased coffee, pepper, and green bean cakes before, but had recently begun purchasing milk products as well.
Vu Van Khanh, whose shop in Lao Cai Town’s Coc Leu Street has more than 140 foreign dairy products, said the number of Chinese customers visiting his shop had increased significantly over the past two weeks.
“On several days, nearly 100 Chinese people came to my shop,” he said.
Khanh said Enfa Grow, Friso, Milmax, Meiji and XO were currently in high demand.
As Chinese customs and border guard officials controlled imported food strictly, each customer who came to Vietnam via entry-exit permits, bought only one or two milk tins.
Chen Qing, a Chinese man, told Thanh Nien at Khanh’s shop that it was difficult to buy a foreign dairy product in China because the domestic milk industry had developed strongly.
Chen said he wanted to buy two milk tins imported from the US and Netherlands from Vietnam for his three-year-old boy during this visit.
Authorities said 20,000 Chinese tourists traveled to Vietnam through Lao Cai International Border Gate this month, up from 14,500 last month.
Melamine checks continue
Health Deputy Minister Cao Minh Quang said Sunday the ministry would instruct local inspection centers this week to test milk samples for the presence of melamine, focusing on qualitative rather than quantitative analysis that would measure the amount of the chemical. He said this was necessary to expedite the process.
The ministry is also considering whether it should allow dairy products in Vietnam to send their milk samples to foreign centers for melamine tests so that the announcement of melamine-free and melamine-tainted milk products could be made sooner.
The Food Hygiene and Safety Bureau under the ministry has pronounced 51 milk samples to be free of melamine.
Meanwhile, three milk samples have been discovered to contain melamine, one of them was from the YiLi Industrial Group, one of 22 Chinese companies that have been found carrying contaminated products.
Vietnamese diaries using any raw material sourced from China have been asked to hold back their products from circulation until they are tested for melamine contamination. Similar instructions have also been given to Vietnamese importers of diary products.
Ho Chi Minh City health officials said they were re-testing the two remaining samples and would announce the results immediately.
Vietnamese inspectors are continuing to carry out checks of milk products nationwide.
In Hanoi, an inspection team led by Hanoi Health Department Director Le Anh Tuan conducted a spot check at the Minh Hoa Company in Hanoi-Dai Tu Industrial Park and discovered 0.8 tons of China’s Danuo powered milk and a Chinese milk bag without a brand name.
Company director Nguyen Thanh Son said it had imported 10 tons of powered milk from Danuo with quality standard certificates and used 9.2 tons for cream production.
But it had suspended using Danuo powered milk after the scandal broke out in China.
Although Danuo was not on the blacklist of 22 Chinese dairy firms that had sold melamine-contaminated products, inspectors still took samples from Minh Hoa Company’s imported powered milk and of the unbranded milk for testing.
In the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, inspectors found many milk products of dubious origin or past their expiry dates being used in numerous companies and shops.
Thanhnien
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