Foreign milk powder makers are still optimistic about the Chinese market, foreign media: not worried about the decline in the birth rate

Reference News Network reported on May 10 that foreign media said that the decline in China's birth rate will worry the infant formula industry? The answer is no.

 

　　The New Zealand Herald website reported on May 8 that at an infant nutrition conference held in Melbourne in April, Liu Xuechong, secretary general of the China Nutrition and Health Food Association, said that the number of women of childbearing age in China between the ages of 25 and 45 is decreasing, while the number of women over the age of 65 is increasing.

 

　　It seems that China, and much of Asia, is facing the demographic fact that the working-age population is shrinking. And this is already the characteristic of most of the developed world.

 

　　So will the golden era of double-digit growth in infant formula soon come to an end?

 

　　New Zealand businessperson David Mahon said the change in the birth rate would not affect New Zealand's exports of infant formula to China.

 

　　"What matters for New Zealand is the middle and upper middle class. They will buy manuka honey and baby formula from New Zealand," he said.

 

　　"While China's demographics suggest something special, that's true," Mr. Mahon said after the meeting. "But the expansion of the middle class means that many people will be consumers for companies that sell these expensive, cutting-edge products, so I think our prospects are pretty good."

 

　　Hamish Reid, chairperson of the Infant Nutrition Council of Australia and New Zealand, agreed, saying the decline in China's birth rate was not cause for concern for global infant formula manufacturers.

 

　　"China is still the world's largest market for infant formula, and the dynamism there is more about more and more people becoming middle class than population growth."

 

　　"Half of the world's infant formula is sold in China, and that's driven by an expanding middle class," he said.

 

　　"They're already quite focused on the domestic milk powder industry, and they're going to rebuild their industry and rebuild their domestic producers," Mr. Reid said.

 

　　"They have tried to support mergers at home and have raised hygiene standards and product standards," he said. "With increasing support for domestic industries, they have created new licensing requirements that foreign suppliers also need to meet."

 

　　"Every company faces its own unique challenges, either brand challenges or innovation challenges, so it's a very dynamic market," he said.