Nestlé CEO Does Not See 'Significant' Baby Formula Shortages Outside US

By Donna Ahern
Nestlé CEO Does Not See 'Significant' Baby Formula Shortages Outside US

Nestlé does not expect "significant infant formula shortages" in other markets the Swiss food maker serves outside the United States, Mark Schneider, chief executive said in an interview Monday.

"This was very much a domestic situation caused by the outage of a large facility in the US," Schneider said, after a shortage hit the U.S. market.

"It's not like we're taking this away from other consumers elsewhere - we had the product."

Doubling Shipments

On the 25th May, it was reported that Danone has been doubling shipments to the United States of Neocate formula for infants allergic to cow's milk, a top executive told Reuters on Wednesday, hoping to help stem a nationwide shortage of formula.

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Top manufacturer Abbott Laboratories in February recalled dozens of types of its Similac, Alimentum and EleCare formulas, creating one of the most urgent food shortages in recent history for US families.

“We have increased our supply for Neocate everywhere...the Abbott recall affected 38 markets – it’s not only the US," said Magdalena Broseta, Danone's Vice President General Counsel of Specialized Nutrition.

'Bigger' Volumes 

"Our factory in Europe is serving multiple markets...of course, the numbers and the volumes and the US are bigger just because of the size of the market.”

The French company declined to say how many cans or tonnes of product it is exporting.

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Danone is the world's second-biggest baby formula maker after Nestlé but a relatively small player in the United States, with less than 5% of market share.

News by Reuters, additional reporting and edited by Checkout. For more A-brand stories, click here. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.

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