What happens to rejected products in China?

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In China, a conscious effort is made to avoid wasting anything. For example, they will try to eat all organs of an animal.

This good habit naturally made its way in the manufacturing industry:

  • There are some defects? Let’s just mix them with the good products, to avoid being caught.
  • The entire batch is rejected by a customer? Let’s try to sell it to another one, or to local shops.

In other words, don’t expect your Chinese suppliers to destroy a production that you have refused. They will never accept to take that kind of loss. They will try to do something else with it.

The designs were licensed and bear your brand name? So what?

The products are actually unsafe and should not be used by anybody? Who are you to judge that?

On Saturday I found a good example. Something weird was going on, in the fisherman’s wharf of Shekou:

Removing milk from cans

Here is what I saw:

  1. The cans contained powder milk.
  2. Every single can’s lid had already been punched before getting to this place.
  3. The workers opened the lid fully, and others emptied the cans inside large bags.

Opening the cans of milk

These cans had clearly been rejected. That port is very close to Hong Kong, so one can imagine many scenarios.

What will they do with all this milk powder? I hope they feed pigs with it, but I am afraid they re-package it in a dirty factory and re-sell it in stores…

Putting milk inside large bags

Milk powder has been suspect in the eyes of most Chinese since the Sanlu scandal of 2008. Tons of milk are purchased in Hong Kong and brought to the mainland every month.

Old habits die hard…

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0 Responses

  1. Very interesing post~ ” Re-sell ” Or ” Re-use” is very common in china. If clients rejected the goods then fty is total lose in order, so they will try all the methods to sell this ”rejected goods” to other shops/other clients, at least they can get back the production cost of this order. Another point is , if rejected goods stay in fty warehouse, it will occupy too much space (involve storage cost then ) … And, I think all the boss is very very unhappy to see the rejected goods stay in fty ( all are his money !!)

  2. Well, what can I say… as an exclusive agent for a very high quality infants milk powder factory from Australia, it just makes my job easier. Chinese are already so very wary of poor quality. So when dealing with an Australian selling Australian milk products, quality is never an issue. if people want a reliable source of Milk powder from Australia, I am happy to pass on details. Contact me: jamesrein@gmail.com

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Weekly updates for professional importers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

This is a blog written by Renaud Anjoran, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer who has been involved in chinese manufacturing since 2005.

He is the CEO of The Sofeast Group.

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