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SCMP Reporter

Brothers accused of selling poisoned food
Mainland police have made the first arrests in the tainted-milk scandal.
They have apprehended two brothers in Shijiazhuang  and accused them of selling adulterated milk to the Sanlu Group, which then used it to make infant formula that killed two babies and made  more than 1,200 others ill.
The brothers, surnamed Geng, had been running private dairies  since May 2004 in the town of Nanlou .  The authorities said they  had been selling 3  tonnes of contaminated milk a day to Sanlu since the end of last year,  Xinhua reported.
The brothers now faced charges of producing and selling toxic and hazardous food, Xinhua reported.
The report said the pair learned they could put melamine, a chemical raw material strictly forbidden in food processing, into milk to boost its protein reading. They then bought the chemical from a local supplier and added it to the milk.
Xinhua said the brothers  did so because they had suffered losses after milk from their depot  had been rejected several times by Sanlu for failing to meet the company's standards.
The elder brother  told police that his family never drank the contaminated milk and he was aware that he was deceiving Sanlu by adding the chemical.
Nineteen people from private dairies  have been detained  in Hebei  in connection with the scandal.
The Gengs' arrest has brought media attention to the  quiet town, an hour's drive from Shijiazhuang. Nanlou, the regional centre for fresh milk production, attracted big-name companies  to set up depots  there.
People in the town  were dismayed by the news and feared it would ruin Nanlou's economy. They said they did not know the brothers. A restaurateur who  identified himself  as Mr Chen said there were several dairies  in the town, but none of the owners were surnamed Geng or anything like  that name. 'The dominant surname is Chen here, so Geng doesn't sound like a local surname.'
Ms Chen, a  cashier at a dairy,  criticised  the media for jumping to conclusions and 'killing' the Sanlu brand.  'It takes decades for such a homemade brand to be accepted [nationwide].'
Dairy farmers in Nanlou said most companies had  stringent regulations for collection and that it was impossible for them to add an unauthorised chemical.
Companies such as Mengniu  required  farmers to take  cows to the firm's  dairy  and milk them  in front of its staff, she said.  The milk was sent  to the  factory on the same day.
She said most farmers preferred this process  because they could save on  electricity.
But Chen Chunsheng , a villager and former dairy farmer, said many farmers living far  from the official dairies  preferred to milk their cows themselves.
'You've got to milk cows three times a day, so it's impossible for people living far away to drag their cows to the station every eight hours.'
He said   dairy farmers' profit margins  had been eaten away by the surging cost of feed, which tempted people to cheat. He said it cost about 33.2 yuan (HK$37.92) a day to feed one cow, not counting  labour. Salaries and feed costs have risen significantly in the past two years.
A cow, with an average daily production of 25kg of milk, could  make 60 yuan a day for the farmer but the net profit was less than 30 yuan a day.
'If your cows catch any of those animal viruses, everything you have is gone. It's the riskiest business I have ever seen in my life,' Chen Chunsheng said, adding this was the reason he left the business last year.
Dairy cashier, Ms Chen,  agreed with the estimate and said about two-thirds of   farmers had disappeared in the past two years. 'From what I saw, I'm afraid only a few people will be able to afford milk and milk products within a couple of years as milk farmers are leaving at such a fast pace.'



First arrests made in tainted-milk scandal