经济学人_英文阅读_013

Dairy deals in China Uh oh Danone Foreign firms are rushing into China s scandal plagued dairy industry May 25th 2013 HONG KONG From the print edition Tweet Can you find the safe one A COUNTRY like this can put a satellite into space but it can t put a safe bottle teat into a child s mouth So declares Ai Weiwei China s most famous dissident artist His latest provocative work pictured part of an exhibition which opened on May 17th in Hong Kong is a map of China made up of 1 800 tins of baby milk powder Even in a country used to food safety scandals the latest include poisonous rice ginger laced with pesticide and rat meat masquerading as lamb dairy is a sensitive topic In 2008 six children died and tens of thousands were made ill by local milk powder tainted with melamine added to boost the apparent protein content Subsequent scandals involving fresh and powdered milk have shattered confidence in domestic firms In this section Guns and sugar Cook lightly grilled Platforms upon platforms Uh oh Danone City to city Battle of the boxes The age of smart machines Reprints Related topics Hong Kong Culture and lifestyle Food and cooking Dairy and Eggs Food Many have turned to imported dairy products but suppliers simply cannot keep up Well heeled mums and opportunistic middlemen have also tried smuggling in huge quantities of milk powder but resultant shortages abroad have led to a backlash and to purchase limits as far away as Ireland Get caught leaving Hong Kong with three tins of milk powder and you may go to jail So the only hope for Chinese consumers is for the domestic industry to clean up its act That has created an opening for multinationals with strong brands and a record of safety Danone a French dairy giant this week announced a 325m 420m investment to expand its yogurt business in partnership with Mengniu China s largest dairy firm Arla Foods a Danish milk producer already owns a stake in Mengniu and is helping to professionalise its research Nestl a Swiss food giant is improving quality control and farming practices at its local suppliers and is building a hands on dairy university in north eastern China In the short term such investments will encounter snags The agricultural supply chain is highly fragmented so it is difficult to control the quality of inputs Regulators are erratic sometimes dangerously lax but at other times arbitrarily harsh especially toward foreign firms And local partners can undermine joint ventures as Danone discovered in an earlier failed venture with Wahaha a beverag