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Dirty Chinese milk hurting the clean
Areas which are providing high-quality fresh milk like Ba Vi and Moc Chau are suffering due to the information about China-sourced melamine-infected milk.
Relevant ministries have decided that all dairy products, irrespective of which companies they are made by and which materials they are made from, must show certificates that they are free from melamine, to be eligible to be sold in Vietnam.
However, it takes time to get the certificate. There are only three centres which have the function of testing and certifying which have to grant certificates to hundreds of enterprises and verify thousands of samples of milk.
The milk market was nearly frozen last week as only Vinamilk and the International Milk Joint Stock Company, which got licences certifying their products are melamine-free, could sell products on the market, while other milk producers had to wait and watch their turnover decrease.
Not only milk producers, foodstuff and confectionary companies also have to get certificates. Quang Ngai-based Biscafun Confectionary Company breathed a sigh of relief after relevant ministries concluded that its products do not use powdered milk sourced from China.
Nevertheless, not many companies are as lucky as Biscafun and Vinamilk. The director of a big milk company in the north said that as the company still cannot get a certificate, tens of billions of VND worth of products are being kept in stock. He said that the company plans to bring a sample to Singapore for testing, but he is not sure if the result will be accepted in Vietnam.
“We are losing billions of VND a day until our products can be sold. If milk companies cannot sell products, farmers will suffer,” he warned.
Domestic milk sources not faulty
At first, people thought that the problems with Chinese milk would be an opportunity for Vietnam’s good milk material areas like Ba Vi and Moc Chau. However, things seem to be quite different. Domestic fresh milk has been involved in the misfortune due to misunderstandings that are keeping consumers away from dairy products.
Hoang Kim Giao, Head of the Animal Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that it is necessary to take actions to rescue local material milk areas. “Don’t let vague information have bad impacts on the milk market, which will cause difficulties for farmers and force them to turn their backs on herds of milk cows.”
Nguyen Tuan Khai, former Deputy Head of the Food Processing Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, who is now a businessman, related that when consumers heard that ANCO’s workshop in Ba Vi district had dairy products made from Chinese powdered milk, they took it to mean that Ba Vi-trademark fresh milk is made from dirty milk from China.
Khai said that heavy investment has been made to develop the herd of milk cows in Ba Vi and Moc Chau, where the climate is good and water source is profuse, suitable to develop milk cows. Khai said that the quality of the milk in the areas proves to be very good.
However, the problem now is that milk companies cannot sell milk and they have to cut down the volume of milk they purchase from farmers. Ba Vi and Moc Chau trademark dairy products are the innocent victims of dirty Chinese milk.
VNN
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