CHINA PUNISHES MORE SENIOR OFFICIALS OVER THE 2008 MELAMINE SCANDAL...




China punishes more senior officials over the 2008 melamine dairy scandal...


First published at Qassia:

China punishes more officials over the recent melamine dairy scandal.
China's Communist Party has punished more senior government officials for their part in the melamine tainted baby milk powder scandal last year which killed six infants and made another 360,000 severely ill - many with kidney disease.

The New Zealand giant dairy Fonterra was implicated through its Chinese joint venture partner, Sanlu. No New Zealand milk was ever sold to Chinese customers; Sanlu using only Chinese milk powder.

The scandal forced the head of the Chinese quality watchdog group to resign, and the courts sentenced two men to death for the production of melamine contaminants and supplying Chinese companies with the toxic milk.

The Xinhua news agency reportedly stated the Communist Party's disciplinary body had removed Wang Bubu, chief of the law enforcement and supervision department at China's quality watchdog, from all of his official and party positions.

It was also reported that the deputy chief of food circulation at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce(unnamed)was also dismissed from his position, and also six others, from state agencies, including the State Food and Drug Administration, and the Ministries of Agriculture and Health,received penalties, including demotion and having their misdeeds publicly recorded. It was one of the biggest ever shake-ups in the Chinese administration.

The Chinese Government is still embarrassed by claims the melamine milk powder scandal was repressed until after the Beijing Olympic Games. Are the claims true? You be the judge!



Contributor's Note
The scandal continues. It cost Fonterra $250,000,000 in compensation for its implication.

FONTERRA PUSHING THEIR LUCK A BIT...



First published at Qassia:



Fonterra pushing their luck a bit...

Fonterra is New Zealand's largest company and in the top six dairy companies in the world. It is no small fry in the wider scheme of things.

While Fonterra was embarrassed by its involvement in the Chinese melamine milk scandal in China last year, through its involvement with a Chinese dairy company, it was not actually involved directly in exporting dairy products to Chinese companies. However Fonterra paid out about $NZ200 million in compensation. Six babies died and about 36,000 others became seriously ill through the melamine contaminated milk powder their mothers gave them. The melamine caused kidney stones in thousands of Chinese babies.

Three Chinese nationals directly responsible for adding melamine to milk products received the death penalties, and others were imprisoned for an number of years or received life sentences. Melamine is normally used in plastic products and should not have been added to food products in any form at all.

Back in New Zealand Fonterra distributes and sells dairy products on behalf of its farmer producers; probably up to 95% of all dairy farmers are Fonterra's clients. It certainly didn't help the image of New Zealand overseas as well.

During recent times the dairy industry had been booming in New Zealand, with many farmers changing from meat and wool to dairy products. But the economic tsunami now sweeping the world has harmed Fonterra and its farmer clients in no uncertain terms as well. Dairy prices are plumetting and a few farmers may now be wishing they had stayed in the meat and wool industry, rather than switching to the dairy market.

The increasing returns for farmers in export markets in recent years resulted in soaring domestic prices at the supermarkets. Many customers switched to cheaper butter alternatives such as margerine. While some prices have fallen, they are not being reflected by any increases in demand for dairy products.

Fonterra