Robert Cleveland, senior vice president of nutrition for North America and Europe at Reckitt, speaks via video conference during a House Commerce subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Baby Formula Manufacturer Reckitt It has the capacity to produce at least 21 million 8-ounce bottles at its plants in Asia and Latin America for the US market, a senior company executive said on Wednesday. .
Parents have struggled to find food for their babies, as Abbott, formerly the largest infant formula maker in the U.S., was forced to close its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, and formula in February due to bacterial contamination at the facility. Several batches of IS were forced to be recalled.
Since the closure of Abbott’s Michigan plant, Reckitt has become the leading infant formula maker in the US with a 54% market share, according to Robert Cleveland, head of Reckitt’s infant formula operations in North America and Europe. Cleveland said Reckitt has already ramped up its U.S. production, shipping 35% more formula to stores through April than the same period last year, feeding 200,000 more babies than before. Is equal.
According to Cleveland, Reckitt also has the material and is set to begin production at its Singapore plant for the US market on June 5. The company may initially produce 200 metric tons of formula in Singapore, the equivalent of 6 million 8-ounce bottles, and have the product on shelves in the US later in the month. Cleveland said Reckitt could ramp up to deliver 500 tonnes from Singapore to the US.
If the FDA allows Reckitt’s plant in Mexico to ship to the US as well, the company could move at least 700 metric tons of formula from Singapore and Mexico combined to the US market, Cleveland said, which adds up to 21 million 8. One ounce is equal to bottles. , An 8-ounce bottle is the equivalent of feeding one baby.
“We’re really here waiting for the FDA to tell us to go ahead and if they do — we’re ready to run,” Cleveland told CNBC. “We think we can largely fix this problem in the US on our manufacturing alone.”
The FDA has eased baby formula import restrictions in response to shortages, asking manufacturers to submit applications to ship formula produced in the U.S. for overseas markets. declined to comment on the situation. ,
“We’re maximizing all of our production in the US,” Cleveland said. “Then we’ll bring in whatever we can from Singapore and Mexico and we’re going to maximize those options until we start to see shelves full and consumer fears subsiding.”
President Joe Biden met with executives from the infant formula industry, including Cleveland, on Wednesday afternoon to discuss US efforts to end the shortage. The Biden administration has so far flown 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles of Nestle-made infant formula from Europe, with additional flights scheduled for next week, which will pick up millions more bottles from manufacturer Babs in Australia and Kendall in the United Kingdom. are for.
The Biden administration has also invoked the Defense Production Act to support increased production of infant formula in the US Cleveland, with supply chains in the industry facing continued problems with input shortages and delivery delays since the Covid-19 pandemic began. have faced.
One of Reckitt’s suppliers recently had trouble distributing enough oil to be used in infant formula products because they could not find a part to be used in their production line. Cleveland said the administration used DPA to help the supplier obtain that part and that the company was able to deliver oil to Reckitt. He said the administration has also called on suppliers to facilitate a more consistent trucking schedule.
Cleveland said the US formula shortage won’t end until late summer, though the timeline depends on when Abbott’s Michigan plant resumes production and the FDA Greenlight for Reckitt begins bringing products from Singapore and Mexico. .
Abbott has said it aims to resume production in Michigan on June 4, although it will take six to eight weeks for its formula to reach store shelves. The Michigan facility closed in February after four infants who consumed powdered formula made at the plant were hospitalized with Cronobacter bacterial infections, two of whom died.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told Congress last week that the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could not prove a link between infant diseases and Abbott’s infant formula products. However, inspectors found the conditions at the Michigan plant “extremely unhealthy,” Calif said.
A federal court-backed consent decree requires Abbott to take hundreds of steps to ensure the Michigan plant meets US food safety standards before reopening the Michigan plant.