• Chinese buyers have an insatiable demand for baby milk powder: Fremantle Central Pharmacy’s Howe Boon Lok sends another shipment of Australian formula to Asia.
SHOPPERS in central Fremantle have been subjected to an eye-opening display of China’s insatiable appetite for Australian infant formula.
Boxes and boxes of Karicare Aptamil stacked on the footpath outside Fremantle Central Pharmacy were whisked off to a waiting ship that’s now en route to the Asian superpower.
Demand for foreign-sourced formula is so high in China that it can sell on the black market for five times the price it gets here.
FCP proprietor Howe Boon Lok doesn’t think his large shipment is destined for on-selling, saying he’s organised similar sales to the 100-strong Chinese crew of the same ship once or twice a year for a while now. He believes they simply pass it on to grateful family members and friends.
“Normally the ship is in town for three or four days but this time it was only in for three hours, he told the Herald. “We didn’t even get a chance to move the stock into the shop.”
It was such a rush he mobilised relatives and used his own car to get the products to the port. From there the crew carried the goods on board.
“I have never done it like this before, it was very stressful,” he confided.
But baby formula is a big issue in China.
Extortionate prices are being driven by Chinese people’s ongoing distrust of domestic supplies that follows a poisoning scandal six years ago. Six children died and hundreds of thousands suffered kidney damage when 21 manufacturers added the toxic chemical melamine to inflate protein content.
To protect Chinese manufacturers from the influx of imports, Hong Kong’s regional government has imposed strict quotas.
In January the regime arrested 64 people in Hong Kong who were allegedly trying to get 450kg of the white powder onto the mainland. If convicted they face two years in gaol.
Chinese demand for overseas supplies is so strong that formula shortages hit Australian and UK shelves last year. In response, Woolworths imposed a four-can limit on sales in Australia which still stands.
Mr Lok was at pains to point out he always keeps at least half his stock for locals: “This is a very sensitive issue because I must keep stock for my local customers,” he told the Herald.
“We have a big clientele of tourists and crew from ships because we speak Chinese, so many people from south-east Asia shop here.”
by EDDIE ALBRECHT & STEVE GRANT