Heavy penalties for foreign milk companies in the market will not change in the short term

The National Development and Reform Commission announced on the 7th that Synergy, Mead Johnson, Dumex, Abbott, Fu Shilan (Mercedes Jiaer) and Fonterra's six milk powder manufacturing companies have been fined about 670 million yuan for violating the Anti-Monopoly Law. , Become the largest ticket in the history of China's anti-monopoly history.

According to industry sources, the penalties imposed on price monopolies will help create a fair competition environment for the powdered milk market. The price of imported milk powder may continue to decline and consumers will benefit as a result.

Zhang Zhigang, a research fellow at Risen Securities Foods, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that for a milk company with its own milk source, this is indeed a development opportunity. However, the current consumer confidence in domestic milk powder has not yet recovered. Even if some imported brands have problems with milk powder, most consumers still choose other brands of imported milk powder. For those dairy companies that do not have their own milk sources and only rely mainly on processing and sales, their negative impact is the same as that of overseas milk companies.

According to reports, prior to the "melamine" incident, the market share of domestic companies in the Chinese milk powder market, especially infant formula milk powder, reached 60%-70%. Currently, the top ten domestically-produced milk powder companies have a market share of approximately 43.78. %, while the share of 4 foreign milk powders in the domestic market exceeds 40%.

Zhang Zhigang said that in the short term, the current market pattern will not change much. The recent series of incidents of imported powdered milk caused the market share competition is only the competition among imported brands.

Industry researchers revealed that the technical content of infant formula milk powder is not high, and it is the milk source and sterilization equipment that are important. In terms of quality, domestic dairy companies are not unable to meet standards. The key point is that after 2008, consumers have no confidence in the quality of domestic milk powder. Therefore, domestic dairy companies also need a long time to eliminate the psychological impact of "melamine".