HONG
KONG: The group of 40 mainland Chinese tourists made all the requisite
shopping purchases on a recent trip to Europe: silk scarves, Swiss
watches, Louis Vuitton handbags.
Rushing shelves at a
supermarket in Germany, Chinese shoppers stuffed a half-dozen large cans
into bags, one of the tourists said. "One woman told me, 'If it was
easier to carry, we would buy more; it's good and cheap here,'" recalled
the tourist, Zhang Yuhua, 60, who bought two cans.
Chinese are
buying up infant milk powder everywhere they can get it, outside of
China. And that has led to shortages in at least a half-dozen countries,
from the Netherlands to New Zealand. The lack of supply is a reminder
of how the consumption patterns of Chinese — and their rising food and
environmental safety concerns — can have far-reaching impacts on
critical daily goods around the world.
Big retail chains like Boots and Sainsbury's in Britain now limit individuals to two cans of infant formula
per purchase, and customs officials in Hong Kong are enforcing a
two-can, or four-pound, restriction on travelers taking it out of the
territory — with violators facing fines of up to $6,500 and two years in
prison.
Officials in Hong Kong are treating baby milk
smugglers like criminals who traffic in more illicit kinds of powder. In
April, the customs police held a news conference to announce that a
two-day "antismuggling operation" had resulted in the breaking up of
three "syndicates," the arrest of 10 people and the seizure of nearly
220 pounds of formula worth $3,500.
On the mainland, Chinese
parents' obsession with foreign milk powder, which stems from distrust
of domestic brands, is stirring a nationalistic "buy China" movement
among some officials.
This month, a government agency announced
it had begun an investigation into price-fixing in the baby milk powder
industry; targets of the inquiry included some of the biggest foreign
companies. Officials also announced stricter inspection procedures
throughout the industry, and editorials by state-run news organizations
said they hoped Chinese powder makers would improve their standards so
as to "defeat" the foreign companies.
Travelers who manage to
arrive in China with large amounts of baby milk powder must elude
Chinese customs officials, who are now enforcing strict limits on
formula imports.
"Milk powder safety is the issue of No. 1
concern among pregnant women and new-baby households," said Allen Wang,
chief executive and co-founder of Babytree.com, the largest online forum
for Chinese parents. "People are asking friends, 'What do you
recommend? How do you store up foreign brands? Can you help me if you
travel overseas?' "
Worries over domestic infant formula surged
in 2008, when six babies died and more than 300,000 children fell ill
from drinking milk products that had been tainted with melamine, a toxic
chemical.
In response, many Chinese turned to buying imported
infant milk powder. But in the years since, there have been occasional
reports of distributors or retailers in China adulterating foreign-made
powder with Chinese formula, and so many Chinese consumers have begun
getting their powder directly from overseas.
A survey by the
Pew Research Center showed that 41 per cent of Chinese said last year
that food safety was a very serious problem, compared with just 12 per
cent in 2008.
"How can we still trust mainland-made food after
reading all these horrendous stories on food safety issues?" said Tina,
28, a Guangzhou resident and the mother of a baby girl. "We are the
parents of our children, and nobody can accuse us for just wanting the
best for our babies. It's not that we don't love our country — we just
dare not take the risk."
Tina, who spoke on the condition that
only her English name be used, says she gets 80 per cent of her formula
through the mail from relatives in New Zealand. And family members go
about once a month to Hong Kong to buy diapers and other baby supplies.
"Most of my friends get others to carry in baby formula from abroad,"
she said.
In China, more mothers are breast-feeding because of
the recent scandals, but formula remains popular for various reasons,
including aggressive marketing by formula makers. Mr. Wang said
Babytree.com's surveys show about two-thirds of mainland households with
babies use formula, and foreign brands command a 60 per cent market
share. Beijing News reported in May that statistics showed the amount of
foreign milk powder that China imports leapt to 310,000 tons in 2009,
more than twice the amount in 2008, when the scandal hit. In 2011, it
was 528,000 tons.
Prices have risen with demand. Both Mr Wang
and the online edition of People's Daily, the official Communist Party
newspaper, said the prices of foreign-brand formula sold in China had
increased by at least 30 per cent since 2008. Some 28-ounce cans cost
more than $60.
For safety and price reasons, Chinese
increasingly want to buy from someone in the source country. One popular
outlet is the Internet — entrepreneurs running online stores ask people
they know overseas to mail formula to China. Mainland parents also ask
friends or relatives going abroad to mail or bring back formula.
Such was the case with Zhao Jun, 30, who in May asked a friend going on
a work trip to Britain to buy cans of a British brand, Cow & Gate,
for her baby girl. "In my circles, every mom I know orders milk powder
from overseas or buys it from Hong Kong," said Ms. Zhao, an editor at
Tencent, a Chinese Web portal.
Since that first foray into
foreign formula, Ms. Zhao has been ordering plenty more Cow & Gate.
Online, she finds Chinese students or homemakers abroad who charge for
the service of buying formula and mailing it to China. "Usually I buy
six cans at a time," she said.
Ms. Zhao said the recent limits
at British retail chains meant that she had to pay those entrepreneurs
more of a surcharge, and her friends returning from work trips bring
back fewer cans.
Parents are asking why manufacturers cannot
increase production to meet demand, and some say the makers might be
encouraging the foreign shopping limits to force Chinese to buy the same
products at higher prices in China. The International Formula Council,
an association of manufacturers, declined an interview request. Mead
Johnson Nutrition, an American maker, said in a statement that although
it had "strategically located" plants around the world, there were also
"uncharacteristic fluctuations in consumer demand — such as the
situation in Hong Kong earlier this year."
Meanwhile, Andrew Opie, food director of the British Retail Consortium, said the limits at retail stores were "being done at the request of manufacturers."
The government-mandated limit in Hong Kong went into effect March 1.
There are large Chinese- and English-language signs on both sides of the
busy Hong Kong-Shenzhen border crossing at Lo Wu that warn: "Departing
with excessive powdered formula commits an offense."
At Lung
Fung Garden, a street mall that is one subway stop from Lo Wu, employees
and managers of pharmacies displaying towers of formula cans said that
business had plummeted.
"Before, we would sell out of our
stock," said one man at the Lung Fung Pharmacy. "I feel the government
should get rid of the two-can limit."
Mainland buyers were
still swarming the mall, and most appeared to be sticking to the two-can
limit. One woman, though, stuffed three cans of Friso Gold formula, at
$25 each, into a black duffel bag.
