Toxic milk scare hurts sales
Sales of powdered milk suffered a massive slump in the last couple of days as consumers refrained from buying amid scare over the presence of melamine in the product, manufacturers and retailers said yesterday.
Many consumers are now buying liquid milk instead of powdered milk to feed their children after eight brands of powdered milk were found to be melamine-positive by the chemistry department of Dhaka University (DU) early this week.
However manufacturers of the brands such as Arla Foods and Nestle Bangladesh denied the DU findings, claiming that their products are 'free from melamine and safe for consumption'.
The claim is yet to clear the doubt of the consumers, majority of whom have shelved their plans to buy powdered milk as the DU chemistry department stays 'confident' over its findings about the presence of melamine in those brands.
“The market has been slowing down tremendously because people are in doubt. I will keep on telling people that my product is safe and free from melamine,” Laurent Therond, managing director of Nestle Bangladesh, told The Daily Star, referring to Nestle's test results in Thai, Indian and Singaporean laboratories.
“For me it's no negotiation about safety for consumers. Nestle is the biggest food company in the world and we cannot afford in any place in the world to play with the safety,” Therond said.
The Nestle executive's claim came couple of days after the DU chemistry department said it had detected melamine in eight brands including Nestle's dairy brand Nido fortified instant.
Melamine was also known to be detected in Dano of Arla Foods, Red Cow, Diploma and Anlene of New Zealand Dairy Product Bangladesh and in three brands from China -- Yashili-1, Yashili-2 and Sweet Baby-2.
In Bangladesh, foreign brands controlled majority of the powdered milk market of nearly 25,000 tonnes or over Tk 1,000 crore last year, with Dano leading the market, according to industry people.
The Nestle Bangladesh executive expressed doubt over the DU findings, saying, “It might have been for them the first time they were doing (such) research.”
He said Nestle Bangladesh sent the same batch of milk, as was sent to DU, to laboratories abroad and found no melamine. "We also tested our products after the melamine crisis started in China," he said, adding that Nestle got its milk examined in SGS Laboratory in Thailand and India.
The company that imports milk directly from New Zealand also tested its products at its laboratory in Singapore, the executive said.
“No where in the world Nestle has found any of its products being adulterated with melamine,” said Therond, expecting that the result of the re-test, as decided by the government, will not be melamine-positive.
“We are suffering. Sales have slowed down tremendously. For Nido, our sales to distributors have dropped by 80 percent,” he said.
Ahmed Kabir, country manager of Arla Foods, manufacturer of Dano brand powdered milk, also said their sales slumped by around 80 percent in the last couple of days.
“Customers have become doubtful about the powered milk. It has affected the overall dairy market,” he said.
“I am confident that my product is completely free from melamine,” he said, citing a test result from Eurofins Group of Laboratories, Germany.
The country chief of Arla Foods, which has already cut much of its production, said overall daily sales of powdered milk have dropped by around 75 percent from the beginning of the week.
The market growth was posted negative in the first six months of the year due to high price in the global market. And the recent melamine scare may deepen the loss, he said.
Retailers also said sales of powdered milk recorded massive fall due to consumers' worry.
“I used to sell around 30 kg of powdered milk a week ago. But now the volume stands at about 10-12 kg a day,” said Mohammad Nur Nabi Bahar, a retailer at Karwan Bazar kitchen market, yesterday.
Nadera Sultana Nadi, a working woman, said she has stopped feeding her five-year-old baby boy on powdered milk.
“Now I buy liquid milk to avoid risk,” she said.
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