The profit of the Shanghai Bright Dairy and Food Company dropped 47 percent year on year to 50.52 million yuan (US$6.2 million) in the third quarter this year, the Beijing Daily quoted the company's report as saying.

The newspaper attributed the profit slump to the heated competition among Chinese dairy companies as well as the recent scandal concerning Bright Dairy's reprocess of unsalable milk products.

In June this year, local newspapers in central China's Henan Province reported that the Bright Dairy's factory in the province reprocessed unsalable milk products in stockpile for resale. After the incident, the sales volume of the company dropped considerably.

France-based Danone, a renowned international food company however, recently still spent 72.21 million yuan to buy shares of Bright Dairy for the third time, making its stake in Bright Dairy to over 10 percent of the total, the newspaper reported.

(Xinhua News Agency November 4, 2005)