China's hunger for baby formula feeds an underground market in Australia
Sydney
DESPITE fully stocked shelves of baby formula made by Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Danone and others, supermarkets in the Coles chain sell only two cans to each customer at a time.
The rule is designed to frustrate a thriving underground market that ships Australian formula to Chinese cities, where only 16 per cent of new mothers breast-feed their children exclusively, according to China's National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Private profiteers can resell a roughly two-pound (0.9kg) can of formula in China for as much as three times the Australian price, said Michael Harvey, a dairy-industry analyst at Rabobank, a big agricultural financier…
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