Coles comes off the shelves of infant formula to prevent Chinese consumers from cleaning up their inventories and reselling them in Asia at a high price.
A user of reddit in Sydney`s inner west side posted an image showing a logo posted on the milk powder shelf of the Kors supermarket, saying the product had been removed from the shelves.
The logo said: "in order to provide all customers with equal opportunities to buy, and to prevent theft of customers can go to the formula counter to buy baby formula needed by the general public."
"Please note that there is still a limit on the amount of milk powder available per customer."
The picture, published by Five Dock readers in Sydney, says, "well done, Coles."
Coles confirmed to the Australian Daily Mail that as Chinese customers continue to buy Australian milk powder in large quantities and sell it at a high price in Asia, he limits the amount of baby food purchased by customers "to two per customer."
A supermarket spokesman said on Monday that Cors is committed to ensuring that customers who really need baby formula can buy milk powder.
"to ensure that we can provide a certain amount of formula to customers, we remove infant formula from the shelves in some stores or monitor the shelves with specially designed electronics.
In recent months, shoppers have profited from reselling baby formula on the Chinese Internet, which has a range of quality control problems.
Demand for baby formula in Australia is so high that production of Aptamil formula increased by 50% in three months.
Many large supermarkets have to set purchase limits for each customer. But it is reported that Asian consumers buy more products by checking out and returning to buy.
Dozens of photos and videos posted online show Chinese consumers emptying infant formula across supermarkets.
Some people fill shopping carts with milk powder, pile it in the trunk or van bucket, or wait early for the store to open so they can buy one more can of milk powder.
Coles and Walworth responded to a rush to buy milk powder by imposing a "two-can" policy, but it was easy for "smart" customers to make the strategy ineffective by trading repeatedly or by turning to Costco.
In Australia, there are 80000 purchasing agents or "individual shopkeepers", many of whom earn more than 100000 yuan a year.
Purchasing agents resell products through social media sites such as WeChat and Weibo, and online shopping sites.
