Finnish dairy company Valio has received a consumer infant formula export licence from the Chinese authorities.

The agreement gives the Helsinki-based firm the right to ship baby milk powder from a factory located at Lapinlahti in Finland and ready-to-use liquid infant formula from a site at Tureng for consumer applications. No information is yet available on what the brands concerned are or when exports will start, a Valio spokesperson told just-food today (9 January).

Valio has exported milk powders and its Valio Demi brand of demineralised whey powders to China for industrial use since the 1990s which have been used as ingredients for local baby foods. In 2017, the company also started to export consumer-packaged milk powder to the Asian nation.

Jussi Mattsson, Valio’s category senior vice president, said in a statement today the company is in negotiations with potential customers.

“We want to strengthen our position in China as a trusted supplier of high-quality industrial ingredients,” Mattsson added. “At the same time, we are building a consumer-product market. Naturally, we are looking to generate new revenue, but profitable growth does not happen in the blink of an eye. Valio is, as of yet, an unknown brand in China, so there is a lot to do.” 

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Last May, Valio set up new retail and foodservice business units in China and has also established a head office in the city of Shanghai. In 1986, the company collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture of China to help develop the country’s dairy industry by providing milk production knowledge training.

Valio said many of its manufacturing plants in Finland have already received approvals to produce milk powder, cheese and butter for the Chinese market. The Lapinlahti facility was opened in 2014, meeting the “most stringent of quality criteria”.   

“Acquiring export permits for our baby foods is a result of many years of work,” Mattsson said. “Cooperation with the Chinese authorities went well, and their audits of the Valio plants were carried out with the highest level of scrutiny. All in all, the process took four years.”