“We are struggling to feed our children”

A Sydney father has written a letter to Woolworths to ask them to change the limits on baby formula purchases, saying that he and other parents are struggling to find the products for their children.

Demand for formula has surged to a massive growth in Asian 'daigou' shoppers – where Chinese people buy products and then resell them for a higher price, sometimes up to 1000% more than the original price.

“'We are a group of concerned customers who are struggling to obtain baby formula for our babies/toddlers, due to some customers buying 8 or more tins of formula,” Mr Chan wrote.

“We have to keep calling stores all over Sydney to feed our children. The problem has become acutely worse since Woolworths increased the per customer limit to 8 tins per customer.”

They are asking Woolworths to bring the limit back down to two tins per customer to ensure adequate supply for Australian families.

“We had all been trying to get some for several days,” Mr Chan added on Facebook. “All the stores from all our neighborhoods had sold out across Sydney… this wasn't a problem until Woolies suddenly increased their limit by 400%. We literally watched two woman [sic] swipe everything off the shelf before we could get anything for ourselves.”

Woolworths responded by saying that they had recently increased the allowances per customer due to improved supply issues.

“We've been working very closely with our suppliers and recently changed our formula tin limit as a result of improving supply in the market,” a spokesperson wrote. “We will continue to carefully monitor stock availability, supply arrangements and feedback from customers and will adjust the limit again if needed.”

However, after a video emerged of dozens of shoppers queuing in a buying frenzy at one of their stores, Woolworths have said they plan to reduce the limit to two cans from next week.