Recently, a lot of mass media reflected confusion about the status of the abnormal rising of milk prices.
Specifically, a reflection of Vietnam Television shown that according to a statistical table of the prices of some imported milk powder products provided by General Customs Office, the import prices were from 80,000 to 100,000 VND/ bottle, while the retail prices on the market were from 400,000 to 900,000 VND, that were 5-9 times higher than the import prices.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Minister of Health, on the implementation of the directive of the Prime Minister dated on September 12, 2013 on the introduction of dairy products in the categories of food supplements resulting to the increase of milk prices, the Ministry of Health reported on the price management and identification of nutrition products containing milk for children under 6 years old.
Regarding the identification of nutrition products that contain milk for under-6-year-old children, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long said that those products had variety of names and types, but the common name of the nutritional formula product group included also tradenames of the manufacturers.
In order to ensure the quality and safety of those products and to implement the Law on Food Safety, Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, and Law on Goods’ Quality, the Ministry of Health issued a lot of national technical regulations on product categorization, as the basis for the implementation of state management for the following products: powdered milk products (QCVN 5-2:2010/BYT) took effect from January 1, 2011; nutritional formula products for infants up to 12 months old (QCVN 11-1:2012 / BYT), nutritional formula products with special medical purposes for infants up to 12 months old (QCVN 11-2:2012/ BYT), nutritional formula products for supplementary feeding for children from 6 to 36 months old (QCVN 11-3:2012 / BYT).
Those technical regulations were developed on the basis of the technical standards of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CODEX – an international food standards setting body) and were in harmony with the standards of ASEAN. The regulation makers received extensively feedback from organizations, individuals, the State management agencies, production companies, food companies, related associations in . Particularly, the draft of those regulations were sent to Office of Scientific and Technical Affairs and Office of Technical Barriers to Trade for getting consultancy of WTO member countries in accordance with the international practice.
According to the Deputy Minister, particularly for nutritional products for children from 3-6 years old, CODEX did not give its own standards, were members of CODEX, so we did not develop standards for that product.
Immediately after issuing those technical regulations, the Ministry of Health guided the implementation for the objects of the regulations, the concerned state authorities concerned and posted information on the Ministry’s website according to the legal documents.
Before the above-mentioned technical regulations came into effect on June 01, 2013 , Department of Food Safety – Ministry of Health had sent Missile No. 516/ATTP-SP dated on March 28, 2013 to Department of Price Management – Ministry of Finance to announce the validity period of the above regulations and suggest the Department of Price Management to set the prices, at the same time provided a list of announced products to the Department of Food Safety to perform management tasks in accordance with the State regulations.
In summary, in nature, the products adjusted under the above technical regulations were the group of dairy products for children under 6 years of age in accordance with the Law on Price.
The Ministry of Health reported to the Government that milk had been regulated into price stabilization commodities since 2008, when the Government issued Decree No. 75/2008/ND-CP on amendment and supplement of some articles of Decree No. 170/2003/ND-CP dated on December 25, 2003 of the Government on regulating the implementation of a number of articles of the Ordinance on Prices issued on June 9, 2008. Since the Ordinance on Prices on January 01, 2013 came into effect, the price stabilization of millk commodity was only for milk for children under 6 year olds.
Thus, the fact that the Ministry of Health issued technical standards for milk products and nutrition products for young children did not cause misunderstanding, and did not increase the price of those products. The State Administration of Food Safety of the Ministry of Health had sent out the above Missle No. 516/ATTP-SP.
With the purpose of facilitating the implementation of the price stability and increasing the exchange of information between agencies, on August 22, 2013, Department of Food Safety had a meeting with the Department of Price Management to explain about the needs of managing price of the products complying with the above specifications. On September 06, 2013, the Ministry of Health sent to the Ministry of Finance Missile No. 5560/BYT-ATTP on the classification of products on the list of price-management-needed products.
The Missle to the Ministry of Finance stated that " (1) the nutritional formula products for infants from 0-36 months old; (2) milk and nutritional products containing milk with or without micronutrient supplementation, but were not in the formula specified in the technical regulations for under 6 years old children, both of (1) and (2) were on the list of price management commodities".
The Ministry of Health recommended the Prime Minister to consider and direct the Ministry of Finance and People’s Committees of Provinces and Cities to strengthen the management of stabilizing prices of dairy products for children under 6 years old, so that children could have access to safe products at reasonable prices. The Ministry also suggested related Ministries to enhance exchanging communication between agencies to update and improve the guidelines after the issuance of the Ordinance on Price. /
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