China closes near to 4,000 substandard milk collection stations

China has shut down close to 4,000 milk collection stations due to substandard conditions, Song Kungang, director-general of the China Dairy Industry Association, said on Wednesday (June 3).

 

In China, milk stations collect fresh milk from local farmers and sell it to dairy companies.

 

Song said agriculture authorities inspected all of the country's 20,393 milk collection stations between November 2008 and April of this year. Out of all the stations, 3,908 were found to lack testing equipment or were not hygienic and were therefore shut down.

 

The remaining 16,485 stations that are still in operation are now subjected to rotating inspections by provincial and regional agriculture departments.

 

Milk stations came under scrutiny last September when it was discovered owners and farmers were adding melamine to diluted milk to make it appear higher in protein. The melamine-tainted milk scandal resulted in the deaths of six Chinese infants and almost 300,000 developed kidney problems and other symptoms.

 

On a side note, Song added that China's dairy industry has seen growth in the first quarter since last September when the melamine scandal broke. The country's dairy output increased 5.53 percent in the January-March period compared to the same period last year.