Meiji Co, the well-known Japanese confectioner and dairy product maker, will stop selling baby formula in China because of intensified competition.

The company issued a statement on its website on Thursday saying that it will stop selling four different kinds of baby formula in China because the cost of importing Australian milk has been rising year-on-year which has seriously affected its income. The four kinds of baby formula are all the dairy products Meiji has been selling in China. It will stop selling these products once all the stock has been exhausted.

Meiji entered China in 1997. It was banned in the nation because of foot-and-mouth disease in 2010. Market analysis said its sales in China dropped by at least 90 percent after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan.