OPINION> Commentary
Lessons from Sanlu scandal
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-29 07:36

The collapse of the Sanlu Dairy Group should leave invaluable lessons for our dairy industry and law enforcement department to learn, says an article in Qilu Evening News. An excerpt follows:

The recent bankruptcy application to the court by the Shijiazhuang-based Sanlu Group is not beyond people's expectations. It has also added to concerns among other involved dairy producers. What the dairy industry and market supervisors should do now more urgently is to think over what they will learn from the Sanlu case.

Trust is the cornerstone for the survival of an enterprise and a society. As an established brand in the country's dairy sector, Sanlu's growth originated from people's confidence in it. However, the enterprise's adulteration of infant milk powder with melamine meant it abandoned its long-established market credibility. Such a move also planted the seed for its rejection by the market from the very beginning. Credibility should become the bottom line for enterprises.

The Sanlu case also exposed a weak market supervision and management system. Such a phenomenon will finally result in the loss of government credibility if it cannot be reversed.

(China Daily 12/29/2008 page4)