Chinese overseas milk powder purchases caused by price gap: official

BEIJING - A Chinese official blamed overcharging by foreign producers on infant formula in China as a leading cause for Chinese people's binge-buying of milk powder overseas.

Chinese buyers' distrust of domestic brand quality is also to blame for the buying spree outside the country, said Jiang Yujun, deputy director of a dairy industry technology research center, at a press conference Friday.

Some foreign brands that sell for some 130 yuan in Europe may cost up to 470 yuan in China, according to Jiang.

At the press conference, Jiang also defended Chinese producers' quality, saying it is safe to consume domestic brands.

Ma Chunliang, an official with the China Food and Drug Administration attending the press conference, said that China is mulling measures to ensure that what people buy through the Internet is also safe.

Some 820,000 tons of infant formula milk powder were sold in 2013, of which 120,000 tons were imported, Ma said, adding that the exact amount of buying through the Internet is hard to know.

Ma said the need for milk powder will increase because of a baby boom as a result of China's loosened family planning policy to allow couples to have two children if one of them is an only child.

China's food and drug watchdog on Friday also confirmed that 51 producers of infant formula milk powder failed to obtain renewed production permits in its latest measures to tighten food safety.

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