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Beingmate, Fonterra and Kerry Group's Chinese partner, has seen profit losses for the first quarter of this year, following an alleged case of milk powder tampering.
An infant formula dealer at the company’s Shanghai plant is said to have been involved in an operation, repackaging cheaper brands of powder and selling it under the Beingmate name.
The breech involved several other parties, with the group making in the region of $430,000 and selling around 11,000 packages of the formula.
The scandal has hit Beingmate's profits for the first three months of this year, with profits dropping twice as much as forecasted. The company had earlier predicted a profit of $14.8m, but instead made losses of up to $33m.
Kerry Group's involvement
Kerry Group entered into a partnership with Beingmate in 2012, to supply Irish ingredients for infant formulaes on the Chinese market.
To date, the Irish company are the only indigenous brand to sell infant formula in China, with the ingredients being processed at the group's Charleville plant in Co Cork.
The Kerry brand has been thriving in the Chinese markets in the last number of years, with the Irish group operating four factories in China and employing around 500 staff.
Fonterra, the New Zealand dairy co-operative, acquired an 18.8% share in Beingmate in March of this year, in order to secure its entry into the Chinese market.
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