The price of milk powder across the board increased by the National Development and Reform Commission

The National Development and Reform Commission’s “foreign milk powder” has been interviewed for the past two months. The price of foreign branded milk powder has risen steadily. The lead is Abbott and Wyeth.

Wyeth formula milk powder brand new packaging Wyeth milk powder average price increase is about 10%, another foreign brand Abbott is also a price increase of 10%; Abbott intellectual protection Xi Kang Po paragraph milk powder 900 grams, rose from 230 yuan to 261 yuan.

Pfizer China's public relations director Xi Qing told reporters that "Wyeth's price increase is due to the introduction of new strains, formula upgrades, and the addition of several new elements." Abbott also said that "price increases are due to new products, new packaging."

Wyeth promoted the first addition of lutein, new added bezoar, choline, beta-carotene, selenium and other elements, domestic brands have added these elements.

A Chinese-funded dairy product trade official said that the import price of large-package milk powder has fallen by 2,000 yuan from May to 30,500 yuan per ton. "The reason why the price of raw materials for foreign companies rises is untenable."

Foreign brands lead the rise again With the introduction of new products, the original product will slowly disappear from the market. Beijing Mei Lian Supermarket salesman told reporters, “Wyeth imported a milk powder rose by 13 yuan, the domestic sub-installed rose by 10 yuan; Abbott The milk powder rose by a large margin, which was originally 230 yuan per can. It has now risen by 31 yuan.” “The milk powder of foreign brands has gone up. At present, the Wyeth and Abbott prices have already been completed.”

In early May, the National Development and Reform Commission interviewed about 6 brands of milk powder. At the time of the interview, the NDRC was required to understand the internal price structure of the company, whether there was a huge profit component, and the second was to require companies to abide by China's "anti-monopoly law" and "price law." Foreign brands concentrated their price increases, which led the National Development and Reform Commission’s interview price limit to abortion.

For price hikes, Xiqing told reporters, “Our newly-listed new product line prices have risen by about 10% over existing products, and existing products have not changed.”

Xi Qing said, “At the end of May, we launched a new brand, formula and process upgrades, the addition of several nutrients, more close to breastmilk.” Wyeth's “four-dimensional nutrition” brand new product introduction shows that the new addition The elements are taurine, choline, selenium and other elements, and the special element is lutein.

Zhang Xue, Abbott’s public relations manager, also stated that “the price increase is the company’s launch of a new product line, new product new packaging, so the price has increased, the overall rate is about 10%.”

However, she also stressed that "the original product price has not changed."

It has been reported that Abbott executives recently stated in an investment forum organized by Goldman Sachs that Abbott is planning to increase its gross profit margin for its nutritional products in order to catch up with Mead Johnson.

With the introduction of new products, Wyeth, Abbott's original products will slowly disappear from the market, new products will replace the original product. Xi Qing said that the existing product line will continue to sell, and the new product line will replace the existing product in the future. "There will be a transition period in the middle."

However, unlike the reason why the prices of upstream raw materials to promote the products are different, this time, Abbott and Wyeth did not mention the impact of upstream raw materials.

Mead Johnson, however, made it clear that "there is no new product launch and no price increase plan."

A person in charge of the domestic dairy product trade told the reporter, “Raw materials cannot be the reason for the price increase. The price is now down by 2,000 yuan compared to May. Now the price of imported bales is generally at 30,500 yuan/ton.”

China's dairy industry under double impact China imported 265,500 tons of milk powder in the first five months of this year, an increase of 49% over the same period of last year

Sanyuan, Feihe, Cradle and many other companies pointed out that domestic brands of milk powder also contain lutein, taurine, choline, selenium and other nutrients.

A person in charge of the marketing department of a powdered milk company stated that “the formula elements are nothing special, and the milk powder sold domestically must comply with national standards. If there are differences, there are two main differences: First, different production processes, domestic companies are mainly wet production. Because foreign companies do not have a milk source base mainly for dry process; second, the proportion of elements added is different."

Wet production is the use of fresh milk as raw material, processing fresh milk into milk powder within 24 hours to ensure the freshness of milk powder. The dry process is the dry blending of raw milk powder and various elements. “Selecting dry production is a frustration for some companies without a milk source base.”

The person in charge of the marketing department of the above-mentioned milk powder company stated that the imported large-packaged powder is usually shipped by sea and it will be shipped to the factory for 3-4 months before going to China for shipment. From the importing country to the production line, it sometimes takes six months before it becomes a formula milk powder.

In the protein raw materials, most domestic brands choose 90 whey powder or 70 whey powder, while foreign brands Heinz, Dumex gold milk powder, Wyeth Kai Fu formula milk powder use concentrated whey protein. At present, the market prices of 90 Whey Flour, 70 Whey Flour and Whey Protein are each 18,000 yuan/ton 16,000 yuan/ton and 0.72 yuan/ton. The price difference is more than doubled.

The concentrated whey protein used by foreign brands is mainly whey powder after the extraction of lactose, which is an important carbohydrate. To compensate for the loss of lactose, some foreign brands had to re-add lactose, and some foreign brands chose maltodextrin instead, including Dumex and Nestlé. At present, the price of lactose on the market is 8,000 yuan/ton, while the price of maltodextrin is 4,100 yuan/ton, and the cost difference is 1 time.

The person in charge of the trading of milk powder enterprises told the reporter that “At present, in the domestic market, the foreign brand market has a total share of more than 50%. In the high-end milk powder market, foreign brands account for 85% of the market”. The main reason is that domestic brands have continued negative news and domestic consumers have taken a distrust attitude toward domestically produced milk powder. The above-mentioned brand director of the company stated that the recent questioning about the national standard of fresh milk has also caused the domestic dairy industry's confidence to decline, which gives foreign investors the opportunity to expand and raise prices.

The person in charge of the company’s milk powder business said: “They have lower costs in importing milk powder than in China, and the price on formula milk is much higher than domestic brands, which puts domestic brands under pressure and the inventory of domestic milk powder keeps increasing. This has led to domestic milk powder. The industry is shrinking."

In 2010, the volume of domestically produced large-packaged powder was approximately the same as that of imports, each accounting for 50%. By this year, the pattern has changed dramatically. Customs statistics show that China imported 267,500 tons of milk powder in the first five months of this year, an increase of 49% over the same period of last year. Annual imports are likely to reach 500,000 tons.