The difference in the production cost of milk powder mainly affects these aspects:
1, milk source:
Milk source is the basis of milk powder, and the cost of milk source greatly affects the price of milk powder. At present, there are three main modes of obtaining milk source. One is to obtain raw materials through complete procurement (import foreign raw materials/cooperate with domestic dairy enterprises); The two modes are self-built pastures by milk powder enterprises (some in China and some abroad); The three modes are to obtain some raw materials (such as desalted whey powder) only through procurement.
Self-built pasture can better control and supervise the quality of milk source and reduce the cost of raw materials, but it is undeniable that the cost invested by enterprises in the process of self-built pasture to ensure self-controlled milk source is also huge.
In addition, in order to ensure the quality of milk source, domestic pastures mostly adopt intensive pasture mode, which requires the installation of supporting projects such as sewage treatment and manure treatment, and the breeding cost and management cost are relatively high. In addition, most of the forage eaten by some cows depends on imports, and the cost of milk source is even higher than that of foreign countries.
In foreign countries, such as New Zealand and Australia, these milk sources are generally free-range, which are not only mature in technology, but also lower in pasture cost, breeding cost, raw material cost and process cost than in China, so the overall milk source cost is lower. However, it is worth noting that importing milk from abroad definitely adds a layer of freight and taxes, which is also the cost.
Different types of milk sources also affect the price of milk powder to some extent. For example, milk from organic pastures often means stricter requirements and higher costs in the production process. The cost of milk source for dairy goats is higher than that of milk source, because the output of goat milk is small, the scale of breeding is small, and things are rare.
2. Scientific research and development:
In order to make the baby get better nutrition, dairy enterprises constantly study the composition of breast milk in the process of product development, such as fortified protein, which includes not only α -whey protein but also β -casein and is close to breast milk in fat mechanism, and the proportion of oligosaccharide nucleotides is close to breast milk.
It is not easy to study these nutrients. None of these researches and technologies can be achieved overnight. They are the fruits of decades of scientific research by enterprises and cannot be separated from a lot of time and capital investment. Therefore, the enterprises behind the high-end milk powder with special nutritional formula often have to pay high R&D costs.
Many dairy companies have also made innovations and breakthroughs in the formula, such as Youboruim's unique cheese ratio of 9: 1, Jinlingguan's patented formula "α+β innovative protein combination", small molecular milk powder, and special nutritional formulas such as HMO and gsMo. The development and addition of these special formulations are also costly. Of course, some companies will cooperate with scientific research institutions to upgrade the formula of milk powder with their research and development results, which is also a big cost.
If the special powder is included, the difference in scientific research cost is even more obvious, because the prices of several special powders available in the market are not low, and the average price is basically above 300 yuan. The reason is mainly due to the high threshold of production technology and equipment and scientific research ability, so it is not surprising that the market price is high.
3. Nutritional components:
Different brands of milk powder, the basic nutrients in the formula, that is, the essential ingredients stipulated by the national standard, are within the prescribed range, with little difference. Therefore, the difference of nutritional components in the formula is mainly reflected in the addition of optional components, such as DHA/ARA, lactoferrin, OPO structured fat, CPP, nucleotide, lutein, probiotics, prebiotics and so on. Milk powder with these ingredients will be more expensive than ordinary milk powder without these ingredients.