Chinese-Label Bellamy’s Organic Enters Production

Mengniu is going to launch a Chinese-label version of the hugely popular Bellamy’s Organic around this August. The product is essentially an updated version of an existing product that has been upgraded in compliance with infant formula registration alteration requirements.

Bellamy has already had its application for product registration alteration approved for an organic infant formula product according to our sources. According to Bellamy's spokesperson ^[1], the Chinese-label products have already entered into production and are expected to hit the shelves in July or August.

Upgraded Version of Yashili’s “Kieevagour”

The approval of Bellamy’s recipe registration follows shortly after the Chinese dairy giant Mengniu acquired the company. In September 2019, Mengniu announced both the acquisition of Bellamy’s for USD 1 billion ^[2] and its commitment to help Bellamy’s expand its market share in China. As we can see from the packaging of the Chinese label version of Bellamy’s Organic, basically it is an upgraded version of “Kieevagour (菁跃)," which was previously manufactured by Yashili New Zealand Dairy Co., Limited. The product registration for that product was YP20175009.

Recipe alteration is not limited to label changes, and an upgrade of the infant formula recipe is also acceptable. As revealed by Bellamy’s spokesperson, it is the first time Bellamy’s products have been fortified with “Nucleotides”. Compared to the old ones produced produced before 2018, the new Bellamy’s Kieevagour infant formula includes nutrients like DHA, ARA, taurine, inositol, and the prebiotics GOS and FOS. Moreover, the recipe of “Kieevagour” also has an organic certificate.

*Note:

China approved the recipe alteration of Kieevagour on April 27, 2020. Due to the delay in data updating, there’s still no updated record in the official infant formula registration database.

Strong Competitor in China’s Infant Formula Market

In line with the data from Euromonitor ^[3], Bellamy’s is the 3rd most well-known organic infant formula brand in China. However, due to delays in Bellamy’s getting its products registered, sales of Bellamy’s organic in China have been limited to CBEC channels. Now that Bellamy has a registered product, Lu Minfang, CEO of Mengniu once anticipated ^[4] the sales would grow by 20% in 2020.

Soon, Bellamy’s will also introduce its ultra-high-end Organic A2 infant formula ^[5] and organic goat infant formula to China’s market via CBEC. Combining the CBEC channel and offline channels, Bellamy is expected to be a strong player in the infant formula sector, especially now that it has the support of domestic giant Mengniu.