May 27, 2004

 

 

44 Percent of Consumers In China Distrust Commitment By Dairy Producers

 

Forty-four percent of Chinese consumers doubt quality commitment made by dairy producers on milk products, and 45 percent are not convinced that the producers have effective control of raw milk, a survey has found.

 

According to the outcome of a survey conducted by the China Business Climate Monitoring Center, dairy producers should exercise self-discipline in quality control to win the trust of consumers.

 

In a report on the survey of Chinese residents' dairy consumption, Zhang Zhongliang, deputy director of the center, said it remains an urgent task to spread the knowledge of dairy consumption as clients are not well-informed about dairy products.

 

The survey was conducted by the center among 1,500 urban residents aged between 18-60 in major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu.

 

The country's medium-sized and small dairy producers suffered negative publicity in the past two months as some inferior or fake milk powder caused 13 infant deaths in east China's Anhui Province,triggering nationwide attention on quality control of dairy goods.

 

Another 171 infants in rural areas of Anhui's Fuyang City suffered from malnutrition after being fed with milk powder deficient in protein and other nutrients.

 

To help major dairy producers that turn out quality goods, the country's quality watchdog made public a namelist of 30 reliable dairy enterprises for reference for consumers.

 

China's consumption and production of dairy products have been increasing by double digits over the past decade as a growing wealthy population becomes more health conscious in Beijing, Shanghai and other urban areas.

 

China produced 5.12 million tons of liquid dairy products -- which made up 80 percent of its total dairy products output -- from January to November last year, up 58 percent.

 

On average Chinese consume less than 10 kg of dairy products a year, as compared with 92.2 kg of the world's average.

 

China imported 288,000 tons of dairy products worth 318 million US dollars in the first 11 months last year, 22 percent and 31.8 percent more from a year ago, respectively.