New Zealand diplomats in Beijing knew in the middle of last month about the contaminated milk scandal in China, but lacked sufficient information to make an official report, the foreign ministry said yesterday.
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has been under fire for not acting immediately when it knew its Chinese joint venture company Sanlu had sold tainted milk powder.
The foreign ministry said Fonterra gave an informal indication to a New Zealand embassy official on Aug. 14 about reports of a small number of sick children, and that Sanlu appeared to have been receiving contaminated milk.
Five days later, Fonterra sought advice from the embassy about how the Chinese government would respond to notification of a local health issue.
The embassy advised that the Chinese central government would normally be informed by local authorities.
Fonterra then urged local authorities to order a full product recall and the embassy informed the ministry of foreign affairs and trade in Wellington, the ministry said.
The ambassador then told the ministry that Fonterra appeared to have a sensitive problem and the embassy would report formally when it was confident about the information it was receiving.
A formal report was finalized on Sept. 5 and at a special meeting of ministers on Sept. 8 “instructions were given to the embassy in Beijing to contact relevant central government agencies in China to convey the views and concerns of the New Zealand government.”
A full recall of the contaminated milk powder was ordered on Sept. 11.
Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier has repeatedly said that the company tried to “do the right thing” in China by working within the Chinese system once Fonterra directors were alerted to the poisoned milk on Aug. 2.
Meanwhile, China ordered widespread checks on dairy products and a recall of tainted items as a scandal that began with powdered baby formula and spread to milk sparked an outcry from China’s trading partners.
Malaysia joined Singapore in banning Chinese milk imports while a dairy company in Japan pulled Chinese products from supermarket shelves following a similar move in Hong Kong after products were found contaminated with potentially deadly melamine.
China’s State Council, which has ordered the comprehensive checks, promised to punish enterprises and government leaders responsible for the scandal, the Xinhua news agency reported late on Friday.
“Local authorities should rectify the dairy industry so as to bring a fundamental change to the dairy market and products,” Xinhua quoted the council as saying.
The council also called on medical authorities to give free examinations and treatment to infants who fell ill after drinking contaminated milk, Xinhua said.
Panicked parents have crowded China’s hospitals and demanded redress since officials and the Sanlu Group, the country’s biggest maker of infant milk powder, said last week that babies developed kidney stones and complications after drinking milk made from powder tainted with melamine, a compound used in making plastics.
At the latest count, 6,244 children have become ill, four have died and 158 are suffering acute kidney failure.
A government food quality watchdog in China has said nearly 10 percent of milk and drinking yogurt samples from three major dairy companies contained melamine.
Liquid milk and yogurt batches from China Mengniu Dairy Co and Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co contained melamine. The substance was also found in several samples of dairy products from the Bright Dairy group.
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