Milchpulver-Klau: Thats why thieves are after German baby food

What's the matter?

To white powder, thieves and smuggling. No, we are not talking about cocaine and the drug mafia. It's about baby food. In a raid on several apartments in Germany, police have now secured over 500 packages of milk powder? Thieves goods!

Why do criminals steal milk powder?

To sell them on the black market in China. For us, the baby substitute food is a normal and not very expensive product. But in China, the demand for milk powder is extremely high, so you can do good business with it. The demand is almost exclusively milk powder from Germany.

Why do Chinese people really want to buy German milk powder?

It is considered particularly safe. In 2008, there was a scandal around melamine-stretched baby milk powder in China. 300,000 babies fell ill and six infants died. Since then, customer confidence in domestic brands has fallen dramatically. Many Chinese parents therefore only want to buy German products. They also often do so over dubious sources on the Internet, at overpriced prices.

How did the thieves go about their raids?

According to the police, they simply ran with trolleys and big bags to many different drugstores and loaded them up. And then they left the shops again, in the middle of the day. The damage is several hundred thousand euros!

Who is behind the milk powder thefts?

About 50 men and women belonged to the gang of thieves, the headquarters apparently was in the Ruhr area. About half of them were arrested now. It is particularly bitter that they probably also trafficked. According to Bild newspaper, the heads of the gang allegedly lured their accomplices to Germany under false pretenses and then forced them to theft.

Do I have to worry as a customer that the milk powder in stores is running out?

Currently not. Although there are always bottlenecks in the delivery, especially in the last year, some shelves were even empty. Sebastian Bayer, dm's CEO, says on our request: "We are experiencing irregular and in individual markets occurring an extremely high demand for various baby foods."

How do drugstores react to the great demand?

In order to be able to satisfy the needs of all customers, there is a recommendation for the dm branches to limit the distribution of milk food in terms of quantity, according to Bayer. This means, for example, that you can not buy more than two packages at once. It is also in contact with the major manufacturers such as HIPP or Danone, so that sufficient food could be produced.

Currently no mother has to worry that her child is not getting full.

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