US baby formula crisis: Republic supplying bulk of emergency supplies

Abbott’s Cavan milk formula plant is still providing the bulk of emergency shipments as the US administration tries to mitigate a baby food crisis.

US president Joe Biden has invoked emergency wartime powers and commissioned US military aircraft to transport supplies of formula from outside the United States after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulator, shut an Abbott milk formula plant in Michigan on safety grounds.

That exacerbated existing supply-chain problems in the sector, leaving many parents, especially those relying on welfare assistance, struggling to feed their babies. The US market is dominated by four companies, of which Abbott is the largest, with a 42 per cent market share. The Michigan plant is the largest formula plant in the country.

A first military flight last weekend carried 70,000lbs of Nestlé formula for US babies as part of Operation Fly Formula with another slightly smaller load landing later in the week.

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However, Abbott’s Irish plant in Cootehill, Co Cavan, is supplying about 1.45 million pounds of formula a week to the US market.

The company is operating between six and eight flights a day from the Republic into 12 US airports, each with about 132,000 cans of formula — enough to make about 765,000 eight-ounce bottles. That would feed some13,500 babies and 27,000 toddlers for a week on the basis of US administration calculations.

“Since February, our facility at Cootehill has produced nearly 11 million pounds of Similac [formula] for the United States,” said an Abbott spokeswoman. “In June alone, we intend to produce an additional 4.7 million pounds for the US market.”

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The Cootehill plant was already registered with the FDA which allowed it to start supplying the US market as soon as the US plant was shut down. It processes about half a million litres of milk a day from about 1,000 farmers.

The spokeswoman said Abbott will more than double the amount of Similac Advance powder formula shipped from the Republic this year.

The US crisis has also presented an opportunity for Irish man Ross McMahon, who established a high-end milk formula plant in Cumbria seven years ago with his sons, Will and Dylan.

The FDA this week approved the McMahon’s Kendal Nutricare to start supplying the US market on an emergency basis until November. Will McMahon said his company had been working with the FDA for five years to get its product into the US which, he said, had been “a closed shop for baby formula” for decades.

“We are hopeful that we will have everything in place with the FDA to be able to continue to supply legitimately well beyond November,” he said.

The company says it will fly about two million cans of its Kendamil formula over several months from June.

Abbott’s Michigan plant is now slated to reopen in early June. But even if that happens, it will be mid-August before formula from the plant once again appears on shelves and even later before it is running at full capacity.