Abbott Nutrition Vietnam, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, has denied allegations that it has been holding a monopoly in distributing a certain type of liquid milk in Vietnam.

The firm’s Public Affairs director, Do Thai Vuong, said that 3A Nutrition – the exclusive importer and distributor of milk products for Abbott Nutrition Vietnam – did not import and distribute the liquid milk called Ensure Nutrition Shake, which had been labelled “not to be sold in Vietnam or Mexico”.

“This product has been illegally imported by many other importers, not 3A Nutrition. So it can’t be said that Abbot is holding a monopoly in this product,” Vuong said. “Such importers have not been licensed to import this product by the Ministry of Health.”

In late December 2014, the National Steering Committee on Combatting Smuggling, Commercial Fraud, and Counterfeit Goods sent a document to the ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade, and Health, stating that this product failed to meet hygiene and food safety, as well as import standards.

“Producers (US’ Abbott Laboratories) and 3A Nutrition show signs of holding a monopoly in the distribution of the liquid milk product Ensure in Vietnam, affecting consumers’ interests,” said the document signed by Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung.

According to the document, in early 2013, Abbott Laboratories in the US started printing on the label of the vanilla-flavoured Ensure Nutrition Shake that the product was “not to be sold in Vietnam or Mexico”.

“After this product was not allowed to be imported into Vietnam, the import turnover of a similar product by Abbott’s exclusive Vietnamese distributor 3A Nutrition Vietnam increased 63 per cent. The price of the drink is almost twice the original product that was banned from distribution in Vietnam,” said the document.

According to the committee, a number of companies have capitalised on porous regulations on product quality certification to make fake documents for the free distribution of the product.

In August 2014, the Ministry of Health prohibited the import certification for products labelled “not to be sold in Vietnam or Mexico”. Following this intercession by the government, however, the smuggling of Ensure liquid milk skyrocketed as bootleg dealers know their market value. In 2013, the import value of the product approached VND700 billion ($33.33 million), of which VND300 billion ($14.3 million) came from 3A Nutrition.

However, Vuong rejected this view, stressing that “Abbott strongly denies these comments. Rather, we take very seriously our commitment to consumers to provide science-based, high-quality products at affordable prices. All the figures stated in the document are also incorrect and ungrounded.”

He said there had been no price increase for Ensure Nutrition Shake [without the label “not to be sold in Vietnam or Mexico”] since its launch last year, with the wholesaler price standing at 26,000VND ($1.21) per bottle.

Referring to the label, Abbott Nutrition Vietnam said in a statement that “If the product has been distributed outside of our approved supply chain or without these steps in place, Abbott cannot guarantee that the product will not be compromised during distribution. As we have not been involved in the storage, transportation or warehousing of products imported by the unauthorised distributors, we cannot guarantee the safety or quality of these products. Therefore, we recently took the decision to label certain Ensure liquid products in order to ensure the highest quality level for consumers.”

In a letter to the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2013, Abbott accused Ho Chi Minh City-based Song Nam Investment and Development Company had produced false documents to illegally import and sell Abbott’s Ensure products throughout Vietnam.

VIR