AUSTRALIAN baby formula makers have copped the wrath of angry mothers blaming them and supermarkets for not doing enough to stop product being bought up in bulk and sold to online shoppers in China.
For months, parents have complained to Bellamy's Organic that tins of infant formula were becoming impossible to find, with pharmacies and supermarkets unable to offer any explanation as to why.
One Sydney mother claimed on social media she rang every Coles supermarket within 20 kilometres, while others have witnessed cartons of formula being taken through store checkouts in buying sprees by enterprising shoppers who are believed to be reselling to friends, family and other customers overseas.
Much of the blame has been pinned on people bulk buying "clean and green" brands, such as Bellamy's and Karicare, then reselling them at premium prices in China, which in 2008 was rocked by a melamine poisoning which killed six babies.
Coles and Woolworths have acknowledged international demand for infant formula and are rationing sales at certain supermarkets to four cans a customer to help stocks last as long as possible.
Bellamy's chief executive Laura McBain said the foreign buy-up had intensified in recent weeks.
The company estimates a third of its sales in Australia are now being re-sold to service the demand in China.
The Tasmanian company has also rapidly extended its Asian footprint to service demand, including opening a Chinese online flagship store in April to further take advantage of the lucrative Chinese market.
Dairy Connect NSW chairman George Davey said phenomenal demand for infant formula and other dairy-based nutritional powders was behind initiatives for two powder plants in NSW which were still "very much bubbling along and very close to the starting point".
Dairy Connect had facilitated the investment in milk powder and infant formula manufacturing in both Orange and Gloucester.
"In due course they will help ease the rapidly increasing demand for these products in Asia, especially from China as current Australian manufacturers struggle to meet current domestic and export demands."
