Milk distributors sour on tardy gov't responses
Local businesses are facing the tough challenge of winning back consumers’ confidence after many were driven away by the recent melamine scare.
With slowing sales and growing concerns that thousands of workers may be laid off, milk businesses are calling on health agencies to issue prompt information that would assuage consumers’ fears about buying the product.
Vinamilk, Nutifood and Hancofood, for example, sent samples of their products and raw materials in for tests, which subsequently verified the absence of melamine.
The companies then waited for the Ministry of Health to announce the negative results to the public but so far no such move has been made, forcing the businesses to turn to retailers and other channels of communication to reach out to consumers.
Damaging delays
In the days when the scandal first broke, Nutifood Company immediately saw a drop in business.
Tran Thi Le, general director of the company, said retailers hesitated to buy supplies as most consumers had stopped purchasing milk.
An owner of a milk wholesaler in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 said consumption of domestic milk, foreign milk produced in Vietnam, and milk imported from other countries in the region have all decreased sharply.
“Many people just stopped buying milk altogether, while some switched to milk imported from the US despite having previously bought from domestic milk producers,” the seller said.
The director of a milk company in HCMC said it’s not productive for producers to defend themselves as “consumers strongly believe in the edicts of government agencies.”
In addition to publicizing the list of products tainted with melamine, the Ministry of Health should name the businesses and products that are found to be free from contamination so consumers can make informed choices, the director said.
Sales of Hancofood products, meanwhile, have plummeted by half since the scandal occurred, said the company’s Deputy Director Pham Ngoc Chau.
Chau said the company has had tocut its purchases to avoid stockpiles, which in turn endangers the livelihood of many northern dairy farmers.
These farmers are now on the verge of bankruptcy in the wake of the melamine scare, Tuoi Tre Newspaper quoted Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy head of the Animal Husbandry Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as saying.
Duong said the bureau last week had asked milk distributors to buy as much as possible from farmers, as the latter are forced to dump tons of milk every day since they lack facilities to keep it good for long.
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HCMC proposes car, motorbike ban to improve traffic gridlocks

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Wednesday presented a six-point plan on measures to combat traffic congestion for discussion, prior to submitting it to the prime minister for approval.
Under the plan, the city will establish a financial fund to expedite compensation for land clearance to carry our traffic construction projects. Currently, the city has to wait for the state to allocate money to projects managed by central agencies.

In terms of infrastructure, the plan proposes to expand bus routes, develop the metro as the main mode of public transportation, and build a host of underground and multi-story parking lots around the city to alleviate on-street parking. On the policy side, the plan delegates the Transport Department and district People’s Committees to draft a schedule to ban motorbikes and cars at certain times of the day on some streets, including Nguyen Hue, Le Loi, Dong Khoi, Phan Chu Trinh, and Phan Boi Chau.
It also suggests increasing transport fees for privately-owned cars, and establishing a street toll system that charges sliding fees for cars based on density of traffic.
Lastly, the city will withhold granting licenses to businesses and ventures that serve a large number of people – like hotels and supermarkets – unless they provide appropriate parking spaces to meet clients’ needs.