China to up fines for false milk ads
The rate of growth in demand for infant formula to feed Chinese newborns is falling as efforts to encourage breast feeding bear fruit, according to an exporter.
Infant formula exporter Chris Claridge, who is managing director of Paraparaumu’s Carrickmore Nutrition, made the claim in the wake of the announcement of a draft law by Chinese authorities to ban adverts in mass media or public places for dairy products, drinks and other foods that ‘‘claim to partly or completely substitute mother’s milk’’.
Violation of the proposed rule would result in a fine of up to RMB1 million, ($211,000) official news agency Xinhua said.
The rule is seen as a move by Chinese authorities to encourage women to breastfeed.
According to 2008 United Nations Children’s Fund data, 41 per cent of Chinese newborns were breastfed exclusively at birth, but by the first six months of life this fell to 28 per cent, well below the global average of 38 per cent.
China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, aims to raise the exclusive breast feeding rate to 50 per cent by 2020.
Claridge said the figures were out of date and did not square with onthe-ground information he received from Chinese contacts.
‘‘The idea that Chinese mothers don’t understand the necessity of breastfeeding is a nonsense. They are very educated and care deeply about the welfare of their child, they express milk if they are working, take time off work to look after child,’’ Claridge said.
‘‘I’ve been to China 19 times in the past 38 months, visited 150 stores, conducted 33 seminars and talked to 42 sub-distributors – the trend they are saying is that there is increased breast feeding and diminishing demand for infant formula for newborns,’’ he said.
An owner of 400 retail stores across China had told him the same thing, he said.
However, there was still growth in infant formula volumes because more babies were being born. The big growth area was in the age range from six months to three years.
When announcing Fonterra’s offer to buy a stake in Chinese company Beingmate, chief executive Theo Spierings predicted the infant formula market in China could grow from its present $17 billion a year to $33b by 2017.
Claridge described the draft regulation as ‘‘rhetoric’’, saying China had a good regulatory regime, but poor compliance. It was more likely to be aimed at Chinese companies.
The rule will reinforce that companies should follow World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols on advertising, which New Zealand companies abide by anyway.
The WHO international code was developed in 1981 following a worldwide campaign against formula milk marketing.
Nestle was accused of endangering the lives of newborns in developing countries by encouraging mothers to feed them formula milk.
Massey University associate professor of marketing Henry Chung said there would continue to be demand for infant formula by Chinese mothers, which is used in conjunction with breast feeding.