BEIJING – The Chinese firm at the centre of a nationwide tainted milk crisis that sickened nearly 300 000 children and killed six has filed for bankruptcy.
A bankruptcy judge in the city of Shijiazhuang, where the milk manufacturer Sanlu Group is based, told AFP the court accepted the bankruptcy filing for consideration.
‘We accepted the bankruptcy application… on December 18,’ said the judge, who would give only his surname, Li, as is common with officials in China.
Sanlu was the first dairy manufacturer found to be selling milk products tainted with the chemical melamine, a scandal first exposed in September and which later implicated many Chinese firms.
Melamine is normally used in making plastics and has other industrial uses, but it emerged that the chemical was routinely mixed into watered-down Chinese milk and dairy products to give the impression of higher protein content.
Fonterra, a New Zealand dairy firm that was a major shareholder in Sanlu, said the court had already declared the firm bankrupt.
The world’s biggest international trader of dairy products, Fonterra held a 43 per cent stake in Sanlu, one of 22 dairy companies identified as selling toxic products.
‘We were aware that Sanlu was in a very difficult situation and faced mounting debts as a result of the melamine contamination crisis,’ Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said in Wellington.
Fonterra has written off its US$114-million investment in Sanlu. – Nampa-AFP
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