As the New Year approaches, Chinese have once again started their annual raid on milk powder in Germany. As family members look forward to returning to China for the Lunar New Year, they stock up on the highly prized German milk powder.
In Munich in southern Germany, many Chinese arrive with a pushcart at 8:00 a.m., when the stores selling milk powder open. Most Chinese customers who are interviewed say that they are purchasing milk powder as gifts for friends and relatives back home, according to German media reports via Radio Free Asia.
Some acknowledge, though, that they are planning to resell the powder to make money. A box of milk powder worth 10 euros can be sold for 25 euros in China. These milk powder entrepreneurs are busy the whole year.
After living through many notorious food safety and dairy scandals in China, Chinese customers have lost trust in the milk powder produced in their own country. The decisive event was the 2008 melamine-laced milk powder scandal in which the state reported 300,000 infant victims and six deaths. That scandal has been followed by other reports of melamine appearing in China’s milk.
