As is my habit, I picked up a copy of 新京报/The Beijing News on the way to lunch. I was wanting to look at the report on the 4th big smog warning this month, which was the top headline on the front page, but the first thing I saw as I opened the paper was this. Yup, the top half of the front page of the business section was a big graphic on the New Zealand DCD milk incident. Page B03 was a full page of reporting on the incident, with the same reports getting a link reasonably high up on The Beijing News’ front page to an easier-on-the-internet-eye format here.
What in that page’s main article that grabbed my attention was, first of all, just how many times MPI CEO Wayne McNee was reported as saying that the DCD was not directly injected into the milk, but spread on pastures, thereby finding its way indirectly into the milk supply as cows ate grass that had been sprayed with DCD, and that the amount of DCD was tiny and only in a few milk powder products and not in other dairy products, and how many times Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings is reported emphasising that Fonterra’s products are safe. A quote from Spierings as an example:
“我们知道，部分消费者和监管机构心存疑问。我们必须打消他们的疑问。目前，我们正在和他们保持密切沟通，提供相应解释。我们拥有强大的科学依据证明恒天然产品的安全性，并且一再就我们产品的食品安全做出保证。”
We know that some consumers and supervision agencies have their suspicions. We must dispel their doubts. At present, we are maintaining close communications with them, providing relevant explanations. We have strong scientific proof of the safety of Fonterra’s products, and will prove again the safety of our products.
But more importantly, at the bottom right of page B03 was a short piece quoting two women, one Ms Ma, who already has a lot of New Zealand infant formula, sent by friends in New Zealand, stored up, and the other, one Ms Liu, seven months pregnant, who has already stored up some New Zealand infant formula. Ms Ma is quoted as saying:
无论事大事小，都不敢再给孩子喝了
Whether its a big issue or a small problem, I still don’t dare give this formula to my child to drink
and:
连新西兰的奶粉都有问题，真不知道以后到底该去哪买放心奶了。
even New Zealand milk powder has problems, now I really don’t know where I should go to buy reassuring milk.
I feel it safe to assume the 放心奶/reassuring milk is infant formula one knows to be safe.
Ms Liu wonders whether she should buy infant formula from Europe. Trouble with that is that several reports state that enormous percentages of China’s imported dairy products, including many big European and North American brands of infant formula, source their milk from New Zealand. Percentages that hit 80. For example:
由于国内近八成进口原料奶粉来自于新西兰，有业内人士认为，考虑到国内市场对新西兰奶源的依赖比较大，
Because 80% of imported milk powder in China is sourced from New Zealand, industry insiders believe that New Zealand milk sources are relatively trusted,
…and it goes on:
相关部门会尽快将此次风波平息
the relevant authorities will calm this storm as quickly as possible
And let’s hope so, and let’s hope that they do it properly, because going back to TBN:
1月26日，在新西兰部分奶粉被曝出含二聚氰胺残留物后，中国国家质检总局已紧急要求新西兰相关部门尽快提供奶粉的二聚氰胺含量、批次等详细情况。但相关部门尚未表态是否会对奶粉启动二聚氰胺检测。
As of January 26, after the revelation that some New Zealand milk powder contained residues of DCD, AQSIQ had already urgently requested the New Zealand authorities provide as soon as possible detailed information on the amounts of DCD detected in milk powder and the batches affected. But the relevant authorities have still not stated whether they will test milk powder for DCD.
And I have yet to come across a report stating that MPI has provided AQSIQ with the necessary information. Let’s hope that they have already done so, or at least will do so very soon, because the comments of Ms Ma and Ms Liu above illustrate what New Zealand’s biggest export earner is up against here – if people in the market for stuff, especially essential stuff like food, for their children, don’t trust your products, they ain’t gonna buy. And if you get a reputation for producing poisonous products for their kids, then your even more screwed.
Three straight days of my inbox being full of poisoned New Zealand milk. I’m quite impressed by New Zealand government and industry efforts to get their message out, but I’m still curious to see how this story plays out.
