Chinese Look to Germany for Milk Powder

Chinese raid German baby formula before Lunar new year.
Chinese Look to Germany for Milk Powder
A family selecting baby formula in the imported baby products section of a supermarket in Beijing on Aug. 4, 2013. STR/AFP/Getty Images
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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.

With the urgent need for safe products, reselling milk powder has become a roaring business in China.
Juliet Song
Juliet Song
Author
Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.
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