Hopes for a Chinese cash cow in France milk country sour
French farmers fear for future of dairy plant once billed as China’s largest foreign investment in the milk processing sector
The opening of a Chinese-owned infant milk powder plant in a small town in the Brittany region of western France in 2016 was heralded as an economic saviour for the region and a win for French dairy farmers.
The €170 million (US$196 million) Carhaix factory would provide some 120,000 tonnes of high quality powdered milk a year to China, where demand for foreign infant milk products has soared after a years of food scares.
France’s biggest dairy cooperative Sodiaal signed a 10-year contact with Synutra, China’s third largest baby milk formula producer, to be the plant’s leading supplier. It would collect 288 million litres of milk a year from 800 farms in Brittany and beyond.
“No infant milk formula company in the world can produce such quantities,” Synutra France CEO Christian Mazuray said at the time.
But now Sodiaal, whose brands include Yoplait, Entremont and Candia, is negotiating with Synutra to purchase part of the Carhaix plant to recover its upfront investment.
Sodiaal confirmed plans in August, but has been tight-lipped about its relationship with the Chinese firm.
French media have otherwise painted a partnership soured by unpaid bills and milk formula exports to China that were 50 per cent less than forecast.
