|
Milk distributors sour on tardy gov't responses
Local businesses are facing the tough challenge of winning back consumers’ confidence after many were driven away by the recent melamine scare.
With slowing sales and growing concerns that thousands of workers may be laid off, milk businesses are calling on health agencies to issue prompt information that would assuage consumers’ fears about buying the product.
Vinamilk, Nutifood and Hancofood, for example, sent samples of their products and raw materials in for tests, which subsequently verified the absence of melamine.
The companies then waited for the Ministry of Health to announce the negative results to the public but so far no such move has been made, forcing the businesses to turn to retailers and other channels of communication to reach out to consumers.
Damaging delays
In the days when the scandal first broke, Nutifood Company immediately saw a drop in business.
Tran Thi Le, general director of the company, said retailers hesitated to buy supplies as most consumers had stopped purchasing milk.
An owner of a milk wholesaler in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 said consumption of domestic milk, foreign milk produced in Vietnam, and milk imported from other countries in the region have all decreased sharply.
“Many people just stopped buying milk altogether, while some switched to milk imported from the US despite having previously bought from domestic milk producers,” the seller said.
The director of a milk company in HCMC said it’s not productive for producers to defend themselves as “consumers strongly believe in the edicts of government agencies.”
In addition to publicizing the list of products tainted with melamine, the Ministry of Health should name the businesses and products that are found to be free from contamination so consumers can make informed choices, the director said.
Sales of Hancofood products, meanwhile, have plummeted by half since the scandal occurred, said the company’s Deputy Director Pham Ngoc Chau.
Chau said the company has had tocut its purchases to avoid stockpiles, which in turn endangers the livelihood of many northern dairy farmers.
These farmers are now on the verge of bankruptcy in the wake of the melamine scare, Tuoi Tre Newspaper quoted Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy head of the Animal Husbandry Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as saying.
Duong said the bureau last week had asked milk distributors to buy as much as possible from farmers, as the latter are forced to dump tons of milk every day since they lack facilities to keep it good for long.
|
Vietnam should protect, boost its milk industry, official says
Taiwan provides its 23 million plus population with 38 kilograms of milk per head annually, while Vietnam can only manage 2.9 kilograms per person per annum with its yearly fresh milk output of 250,000 tons, according to Nguyen Dang Vang, deputy chairman of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology and Environment Committee.
Vietnam’s total fresh milk output only accounts for 21.5 percent of population demand, while the remainder is served by powder milk imports.
Japan and European countries can address domestic demand for milk locally since these governments are highly invested in their husbandry industries, Vang said, adding that “Vietnam can meet the task but will need much time and efforts.”
According to Vang, the government should create policies that encourage fresh milk consumption, which will help raise the price of local supplies.
“The current high prices of animal feed and decreased consumption of fresh milk have placed dairy farmers in a bad spot,” Vang said.
Source: Tuoi Tre |
Thanhnien
|
