Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of milk powder safety on Tuesday, more than eight years after a scandal that had severely damaged the reputation of the country’s dairy industry.

“We must provide good milk powder to the next generation of China,” Xi said during a visit to Banner Dairy, a producer of infant formula milk powder located in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province in north China. “I always attach great importance to the issue.”

After asking about the company’s business operation and food safety measures, Xi emphasized the government’s support to the development of the dairy industry in China and expressed his hope that domestic brands could play a leading role in the market.

According to a report by China Daily last June, as the most populous country in the world, China’s baby formula market was estimated to be worth 65.7 billion yuan (about 10 billion US dollars) in 2016 and is expected to double by 2020. However, public trust in domestic brands has been very low since 2008, when six Chinese infants died and tens of thousands were hospitalized after drinking milk contaminated by melamine. Even infant formula produced by Sanlu Group, a leading Chinese dairy firm, was found to contain melamine.

The poor reputation of the industry has not been repaired after nearly a decade, with many parents buying milk powder from overseas for their babies.

Improving brand influence requires accumulation over time, said Xi. To rebuild their brands and win back consumers, he called on Chinese milk powder producers to set high standards for every link of their operation, from cow foddering and breeding to product processing and selling.