Milk makers seek government help
Written by changthai11 on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
DAIRY PRODUCTS
Milk makers seek government help
PITSINEE JITPLEECHEEP
Leading dairy-product manufacturers called on the government to launch a national campaign to help restore consumer confidence in dairy products after the tainted milk scandal in China.
Paisal Chongbanyatcharoen, president of CP-Meiji Co and vice-chairman of the Thai Dairy Industries Association (TDIA), said that since the melamine contamination issue erupted, Thai consumers were very confused and less confident about buying milk and other dairy products.
“Ready-to-drink milk demand in the Thai market went down by 5% during the past few weeks. We are not sure whether it stemmed from the melamine contamination issue, floods or the vegetarian festival. But we want the government to assure consumers that the dairy products available in the market are safe to consume,” he said.
Currently, consumption of all milk products except milk powder in Thailand is estimated to be worth 50 billion baht a year. Per-capita consumption is only 15 litres per year when compared to over 100 litres in Japan and 92 litres in the United States.
“If consumers are not confident to drink milk, how can we expand the market and encourage higher consumption? A campaign on product safety will be more effective and convincing coming from the government than the private sector,” Mr Paisal said.
Milk consumption locally has potential to increase steadily in the future if the government helps promote milk-drinking and assure product safety, Mr Paisal said. He expects the overall market value will reach 100 billion baht over the next five years.
Yesterday, the TDIA, led by six key manufacturers, came out to assure consumers that their products were totally safe and did not contain milk powder imported from China. They said that they have used local raw milk and imported milk powder from Australia, New Zealand, the US and Europe.
The six manufacturers are CP-Meiji (Meiji brand), AB Food & Beverages (Ovaltine), F&N Dairies (Thailand) (Tea Pot and Bear brands), Wangnamyen Dairy Co-operative (Wangnamyen brand), Nongpho Dairy Co-operative in Ratchaburi (Nongpho) and Foremost.
Amnuay Thongkok, a TDIA member and chairman of the Wangnamyen Dairy Co-operative, said the association would submit a letter to Public Health Minister Chalerm Yubamrung this week to inform him that all dairy products from the six producers were safe.
“We want the Food and Drug Administration to inspect products more seriously. If it finds some products tainted with melamine, their producers and importers must take responsibility,” Mr Amnuay said.
Mr Paisal forecast that local demand for ready-to-drink milk would grow by 13-14% this year from 35 billion baht last year.
CP-Meiji will raise its marketing budget by 10% from 100 million baht to spend on its consumer safety programme soon.
