Quarter of Aussie baby formula heads offshore as professional shoppers make killing from China
A quarter of all Australian baby formula is now sold to Chinese buyers with professional shoppers making small fortunes from selling the product abroad.
This has prompted the NSW Fair Trading Minister to step in to stop baby formula being stripped from supermarket shelves and sold on abroad at massive mark ups.
NSW Minister Matt Kean outlined his aims to protect Australian parents and make sure the much talked about product is readily available at an affordable price.
"I've asked my department to look at exactly what they can do to make sure parents can get this product at a fair price," Minister Kean said.
Authorities have confirmed the bulk buying of formula across Australia is legal but have issued warnings that they may take action if families can't buy this essential at a fair price.
"I can't feed my child and they're feeding families overseas that to me aren't my concern," mother Brooke Barnes said.
The demand for baby formula overseas comes as a lack of faith in the quality of baby formula in China following previous cases of contamination and the array of fake products on the market.
The problem has only worsened thanks to the booming Chinese economy, meaning in ten years from 2002, the nation's middle class population rocketed from four per cent to a staggering 31 per cent.
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This has left nearly 600 million cashed up Chinese consumers looking abroad for quality products.
A quarter of Australian formula is now bought by the Chinese, much of it professional shoppers who make a living combing supermarket shelves to purchase, package and post premium Aussie produce to China.
