Carrefour SA, Europe’s biggest retailer, said its dairy sales in China fell by 50 percent after government tests showed chemical tainting of milk products.
Sales started to recover in the past week and may be back to normal in about a month, said Eric Legros, Carrefour’s managing director for China. Dairy products account for about 1 percent of the Paris-based company’s total revenue in China.
“The most important thing we need now is to be rational because without being rational you have panic and panic is no good for anyone,” Legros said in an interview yesterday at a regional development conference in the western city of Chongquing.
PHOTO: AP
China pulled more than 7,000 tonnes of dairy products from shops after they were found to be laced with melamine, typically used to make plastics and tan leather. Twenty-two dairy producers were found to have used the chemical that has caused kidney stones in babies. Tainted milk formula killed four infants and sickened 53,000 in China.
“I think it’s important that we explain to consumers that there’s nothing wrong with milk,” Legros said. “It’s only that some processors added bad stuff to the milk.”
The contaminated products were first found in baby milk powder produced by Sanlu Group (三鹿), 43 percent-owned by New Zealand’s Fonterra Cooperative Group.
Carrefour spokesman Chen Bo (陳波) said the chain had pulled Sanlu milk powder off its shelves, Xinhua reported on Sept. 12.
The French company, which has 120 stores in China, supplies fruits from China to Europe, while it doesn’t ship milk or dairy products, Legros said.
H.J. Heinz Co, the world’s largest ketchup maker, said on Friday it would recall 270 cases of baby food in Hong Kong after finding traces of melamine. Seven instant coffee and milk tea products made in China are being recalled in the US, the first announced by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Chinese authorities have pulled more than 7,000 tonnes of milk powder, liquid milk and other dairy products that were contaminated.
China’s agricultural ministry said yesterday that inspectors have begun cracking down on lax production methods in 16 dairy and feed-producing regions.
The eight inspection teams are part of efforts to overhaul the US$20 billion dairy industry, focusing on weeding out problems, establishing quality standards and enforcing supervision, the ministry said in a statement.
China, the world’s biggest agricultural producer, is trying to quell rising concern about its food-safety controls after 22 companies were found to have sold dairy products tainted with melamine. More than 20 countries and markets have banned milk products from China.
“It’s an important task for us to revive consumers’ confidence in China-made dairy products,” Commerce Minister Chen Deming (陳德銘)said yesterday on the ministry’s Web site. “We need to achieve this through effective supervision and adopt better quality standards and product testing.”
Deputy agricultural ministers and senior economists are leading the overhaul work in Beijing, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hebei, Xinjiang and Heilongjiang, the statement said.
“The bottom-line task is to take forceful measures to ensure all diary products made after Sept. 14 are problem-free,” Wang Yong (王勇), China’s chief quality supervisor, said in a statement yesterday.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine agency has said no contamination was found in milk products made after Sept. 14.
Chinese scientists have developed a chemical substance enabling cheaper and faster testing for melamine, the Xinhua news agency said Saturday. The reagent can detect melamine in 20 minutes at a cost of 20 yuan (US$2.90), compared with liquid chromatography methods which take a week and cost 2,000 yuan, the report said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
RSS