How milk company plans to fight Chinese baby formula crisis – but will it work?
The scenes of Chinese shoppers stripping Australian supermarket shelves of baby formula could soon come to an end, with the A2 Milk company now making a special product for the Chinese market.
China’s insatiable thirst for our premium infant formula has prompted The A2 Milk Company to create a product specifically for the Chinese market, but it’s feared the price could be a problem.
The product is expensive, costing families 50 per cent more than shipping from Australia.
“Australia and New Zealand are perceived as being the best source of dairy in the world,” said Peter Nathan, CEO of A2 Asia-Pacific.
“This is for children to drink, so I care about the safety of the product,” mother Chen Mohan, told 7 News via a translator.
“The Chinese A2 is more suitable for Chinese babies,” father Tan Jiabing added.
Initially only available online, A2 is now also sold in ‘mum and baby’ stores, and supermarkets.
Shoppers known as daigou, who buy the products in Australia to bring to customers back in China, also do a roaring trade, which means Aussie families could still be caught short.
“Any mother in Australia who wants to buy A2 product, we guarantee we will provide them by an online facility within 24 to 48 hours,” Mr Nathan told 7 News.
The world’s largest dairy company Nestle, and others, are primed to enter the lucrative Chinese infant formula market.
But with demand growing by 20 per cent per year, even the increased supply may not solve the supermarket shortage at home.
