Pouring away milk and slaughtering cows spreads across China

Follow us on TWITTER: http://twitter.com/cnforbiddennews Like us on FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/chinaforbiddennews Mainland China's dairy market suffers "winter" again. Since the end of last year, there has been a sharp decline in the amount of milk bought and prices paid by the milk enterprises. A large swath of dairy farmers in Shandong, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Guangdong prevalently "pour milk and slaughter the cows". The trend is expanding to the entire country, causing social concern. So what is the driving force behind this storm? Let's have a look. At the beginning of this year, an outbreak of "pouring milk slaughtering cows" is booming in a large area around Mainland China. Many medium and small-scale dairy farmers and individual dairy farmers were saddened and informed the media how they suffered. Because the major milk enterprises refused to purchase their milk with a variety of excuses, dairy farmers have had to pour away the milk which could not be sold, in order to avoid greater losses. Because much of the milk was poured down the river, in some areas rivers even ran white. Moreover, huge farming costs and expensive feedstuff, forced the devastated farmers, who could not afford the new low milk price and lower quantity bought, to sell the cows regardless of the losses, and even reluctantly to slaughter the cows. Mr. Chang is a dairy farmer in Tianjin and he says: "Milk cannot be sold out, even at 50 cents half kilogram it cannot be sold. Now, the milk enterprises tell us our milk is not qualified, either by this indicator, or that indicator. I sold the cows I had raised for 13 years. I sold all of the cows. Our (animal husbandry) district is yellow (collapsed), and all cows were sold, no way except to sell. Otherwise, we may lose more money and much more." So, what's the reason for China milk enterprises to refuse to purchase the fresh milk? Experts point out that international raw milk prices continue to fall, and an uncontrolled influx of imported dairy products caused the relative excess and weakened the domestic milk market. These are all the indirect reasons which cause "pouring milk and slaughtering cows". Zhang Dongfang, Deputy Director of Animal Science and Heilongjiang Province Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute: "Some milk industries have oversupplied milk, with a possible existence of a backlog of goods. Or the import of cheaper milk powder has led to rejecting the purchase of fresh milk. Furthermore the country has no security against this." The outbreak of the Sanlu melamine milk scandal in 2008 caused a crisis of confidence in the dairy industry. Due to the concerns about the quality of domestic milk, many consumers looked instead to foreign milk and demand for domestic milk fell. The survey data shows that from Sept 2008 to the spring of 2013, 1.96 million Chinese parents spent more than 16.3 billion RMB on foreign milk bought through Taobao. If saying the direct reason for "pouring milk and slaughtering cows" is the impact of imported foreign milk powder plus weak domestic consumption, then the underlying cause is much more complicated. Experts point out that the imbalanced relationship between dairy farmers and milk enterprises is extremely common in Mainland China. Due to the separation between farming and milk processing, dairy farmers are in a weak position. When milk output is low, the dairy companies raise prices; when there is a surplus, dairy companies refuse to buy or lower the normal price. Bargaining power is in the hands of the dairy industry, with market volatility, the first to suffer loss and the most loss are parents. Mr. Chang: "When milk is overproduced, milk manufacture puts more pressure on dairies, this pressures households, and the final users and farmers will all suffer a lot." Zhang Dongfang: "Now the dairy industry is gradually developing the status of monopoly, and only these companies purchase milk. If these companies don't purchase the milk, then there will be no one to purchase it. On the other hand, dairy industry producers always control the farmers and farming enterprises. For example, there was the Yili brand, or Mengniu brand. They purchased your milk, but you may be required to feed the cows with their feedstuff. Otherwise, if no-one uses their milk, then the producer farmer has to downgrade the milk output. Then you need to buy my veterinary medicine. If you don't buy, then this is unacceptable. Such a monopoly is very serious." All incidents of "slaughtering cows and pouring milk" 《神韵》2015世界巡演新亮点 http://www.ShenYunPerformingArts.org/