China Focus: Chinese parents purchase foreign milk powder amid confidence crisis (2)

A supermarket employee in Shijiazhuang said foreign baby formula is much more popular than domestically produced formula, even though the foreign formula costs nearly twice as much.

"China's milk powder products have frequently suffered from food safety problems in recent years. We have a poor impression of domestic milk powder," said Li Dabao, a father from Beijing.

Li is not the only parent who has exhibited doubt regarding domestic baby formula. Young parents living in large and mid-sized cities prefer to buy formula directly from overseas markets via online purchasing agents.

With more young parents showing interest in foreign formula, some markets have issued policies to control exports of the products, as they cannot keep up with demand.

Meanwhile, domestic formula producers are struggling to regain Chinese consumers' confidence. Domestic formula producers like Syrutra, Bright Dairy and Yili has established in-house safety management systems and tried to expand their overseas milk sources.

However, their efforts have so far failed to improve consumer confidence. Parents' inclination to buy foreign formula has spread to other products as well, with more parents buying toys and nursing equipment from overseas.

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