This post contains mentions of infant loss and may be triggering for some readers.
In 2008, 54,000 babies in China were hospitalised because they’d been fed contaminated baby formula. Six babies died from kidney damage.
The culprit was found in tins of Sanlu baby formula that had been contaminated with melamine, a chemical compound used in plastic and fertiliser production.
Over 10 years later, the effects of the crisis can still be felt. Chinese parents have long-neglected domestic brands of baby formula and instead choose to pay $100 AUD and upwards for certain international brands on the grey market.
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometres away, parents in Australia stare in frustration at depleted supermarket shelves. Baby formula is flying off the shelves so quickly in Australia, supermarkets have had to introduce a two tin per customer rule.
Mamamia’s daily news podcast The Quicky will get you up to speed on what you need to know today…
Host of Mamamia’s The Quicky podcast, Claire Murphy, remembers her own personal struggle trying to buy formula.
“I was so desperate that I went to the opening of a new supermarket because I knew there had to be some Bellamy’s on the shelf,” she says.
“Only to despair when I watched several men and women walk back and forth from the aisle to a trolley outside, cheating the two can at a time rule that was put in place to try and stop this exact practice.
“I cried and the checkout operator allowed me to take home three cans.”
The people who stockpile the formula to sell on the grey market are called ‘daigou.’ With around 80,000 in operation in Australia, it’s estimated they can make up to $100,000 from this practice.
They’re commonly international students, expats or tourists who personally export foreign goods before selling them on, using e-commerce platforms like Taobao and WeChat. Baby formula is a particularly profitable product, but other Australian items like milk powder, vitamins, UGG boots and organic skincare also attract a hefty resell price.
Beijing-based mum, Celine, was one of many parents who made sure to buy foreign baby formula when she gave birth to her first child in 2011, three years on from the scandal.
"Chinese mums, they were furious about the news about Sanlu,” explains Celine.
“[When] I gave birth to my eldest son, I was really concerned about the quality issue, about the baby formula here in China and that's why I chose to purchase through daigou.”
SBS Asia correspondent Katrina Yu says the country has a history of these kinds of scandals, with a “national paranoia” around not just baby formula, but also other Chinese-made food and health products.
Just last year, 250,000 faulty rabies vaccines were given to Chinese children, fuelling even more distrust in the food and medical industries.
In 2015, Radio Free Asia reported that hundreds of children in China’s Henan province fell ill after being administered expired vaccines, with another case of unrefrigerated vaccines killing four children in Shanxi province in 2010, reports The Guardian.
China’s one child policy, which was still in operation up until October 2015, didn't help matters, says Katrina.
“[For] increasingly wealthy middle class parents in China, all they can think about is what can they do for their one child [and] offering their one child the best possible chance in life,” she says.
“It's something they really would fight tooth and nail for.”
While Celine staunchly fed her first son with daigou-purchased baby formula, her attitude began to shift after she had her second child in 2015.
“I did some research and I found that lots of the domestic brands, the Chinese brands, improved and they never wanted themselves to be any kind of scandal,” she said, explaining why she switched to a domestically-produced formula.
“It turns out… they’re very good.
“I have two babies now and I'm more mature than the other mums, who are probably new mums [and] tend to panic more.”
While cyclical reports of baby formula shortages still outrage Australian parents – and rightly so - Celine sums up the subject well:
"No matter whether you are Chinese, or [American, UK, or Australian], you're just a common mum and you want to feed your baby with very good quality milk.”
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Top Comments
Stupidity. They should all be breastfeeding, between the immune boosting factors which is crucial in physical health, mother child bonding that is essential to mental health, and the safety of this obviously superior method of feeding an infant as it is the way nature intended it, this idea of a mass produced baby formula being in such demand is indicative of a very broken global culture and widespread ignorance undoubtedly due to capitalist influence on education, media, and public awareness.
Are there any ways to stop these re-exporters? Or at least increase their cost or risk to make profit from shipping baby formula to China?
I had an idea when I half woke up this morning.
For obvious reasons a lot of Chinese want their food imported from a safe source. On the other hand they also want access to a lot of information from the world outside the Great Fire Wall. One of these things is “sensitive or prohibited” information in Chinese language.
Sensitive or Prohibited information can vary from
•News or facts around the world e.g. recent protests in Hong Kong
•Names of sensitive events or people e.g. 4th of June, Liu Xiao Bo, etc.
•Globally accepted principles like human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of press, etc.
My idea is to blend the two together. Either the baby formula cans are stopped by the Chinese Custom, or the prohibited information gets through.
All locally sold baby formula (sold by Australia and New Zealand) should contain sensitive information in Chinese.
Simple method: sticking a label on the can.
Pros – easily done, can be done by retailer or enthusiastic volunteers.
Cons – can be undone by the re-exporters by removing or over-painting the labels.
Complex method: include a printed pamphlet within the sealed space.
Pros – it is very hard to undo without opening the sealed area.
Cons – can only be implemented by the manufacturers.
I haven’t reached a fully plausible method apart from the two examples above.
I am inviting you to share with your contacts and seek for better ideas.