Australian Dairy Industry Suffers Significant Setback After CNCA Hands Down 2 Suspensions

Australian dairy exports to China suffered a significant setback with the suspension of the registration of “Camperdown Powder Pty” and “Parmalat Australia Pty Ltd” by CNCA.

Camperdown Powder Proprietary Limited

Camperdown Powder Pty Ltd is an Australian company based in Braeside, Melbourne Area. It was granted registration by CNCA in June 2015 (approval number 1179). The product registered is Infant formula. On 6^th of July 2017, CNCA published the list of Australian infant formula producers registered with CNCA (8 in total) and Camperdown Powder Pty Ltd clearly shows the denomination “registration procedure in China has been suspended ” in the remarks. It is noteworthy that the reason for the halt to the procedure has not yet been made public. Organic food and formula company Bellamy last month acquired a 28.5 million dollars stake (90%) in the production plant. Readers should notice that all producers wishing to export infant formula to China should register before 1^st of January 2018, obtain CNCA authentication and that every company can only register 3 different product lines.

Parmalat Australia Proprietary

Parmalat Australia Pty is an Australian company exporting pasteurized milk to China. It was registered with CNCA (approval number 2642) but on the 7^th of July the State body announced the suspension of the renewal procedure. CNCA based its decision on the results of onsite inspection and supervision work conducted on factories in Australia producing products exported to China. During the inspection it was alleged there was a “wide gap between the technologies used for domestic production and the technology used for products destined for the Chinese market”. Unlike what indicated on the label, the pasteurization technologies used for export products  were different from the common ones, and therefore Parmalat Australia Pty violated both process technologies and external packaging food standards. Their declarations violated the “Provisions on the administration of the registration of overseas production enterprises of imported foods” and other relevant rules and standards, leading to the halt. On the 3^rd of July Chinese authorities officially informed Australian authorities about the CNCA decision.

Since the implementation of the rules for the importation of milk products on May 2014, China implemented them strictly as well as carrying out follow-up supervision work on 2225 companies (77 baby formula ones) located in 38 different countries.