Boom seen ahead for country's baby formula market

China's baby formula market could hit 100 billion yuan ($16.1 billion) in three years, despite a slump in confidence of domestic brands, according to research conducted by marketing research firm ACNielsen.

The country's baby formula market could witness a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent from 2014 to 2016, with the total sales volume reaching more than 100 billion yuan in 2016, said Zhou Lingqing, a client service director with the firm's China retail measurement department.

The country's baby formula market volume reached 60 billion yuan last year, Zhou said during a seminar on baby formula distribution held on Tuesday by the China Association of International Trade.

Meanwhile, the distribution channels for baby formula could be further diversified in the next three years, as maternity stores are expected to take up 40 percent of the total sale volume in 2016.

Zhou said the future growth points of the country's baby formula market lie in distribution channels at the county and township levels nationwide.

Experts have called for improved distribution channels of baby formula to further boost consumer confidence.

Song Liang, a dairy industry analyst at the Distribution Productivity Promotion Center of China Commerce, said that markets and stores should take up more responsibility to procure safe products for consumers.

"We cannot expect that consumers could all become experts in the field of baby formula. The distribution channels must make sure that they sell the safe products," he said at the seminar.

Chen Yu, a researcher on the dairy industry with the Ministry of Agriculture, said that consumers should go to the big stores and marketplaces to purchase the baby formula products.

"The risk of buying a fake product is significantly higher at a roadside vendor than at a large marketplace. It is equally important for the consumer to pick the right store in the purchase process," he said.

China's consumer confidence in domestic baby formula suffered a major slump after a scandal in 2008, in which dairy farmers were found to have added melamine to raw milk to make it appear to have a higher protein content. The incident left at least 300,000 babies sickened and six dead.