HONG KONG (Reuters)-Hong Kong has introduced measures on Friday to face a shortage of baby formula milk as food-safety-conscious mainland Chinese people flock to town to stock up on supplies ahead of Lunar New Year holidays.
The Hong Kong Government cut the baggage on trains which connect the town to the Mainland to 23 kg (50 lbs) from 32 kg (70 lb) and limited the number of cans of powdered milk that a person can take back in the Mainland to two per visit.
He said he would also set up a hotline Friday night that allows mothers to Hong Kong by orders for seven brands of infant formula and ensure that orders placed from this weekend are delivered from the feast of the new year, which starts on 10 February and runs for a week in China, when most stores are closed.
A series of scandals involving food produced in China, including milk, has undermined the confidence of many mainland consumers, who have flocked to Hong Kong to shop, angering wealthy city residents who say the problem has led to shortages and pushed up prices.
"The scandals here definitely have had an effect," said Kevin Der Arslanian, a business analyst at China Market Research Group in Shanghai. "People don't necessarily trust that the product they buy is real or the quality is good."
High import taxes in China have also created a thriving gray market for traders who buy tax-free products to Hong Kong and bring them on crowded trains across the border on carts, bags or stuffed into their jackets, to resell for a profit.
Hong Kong was granted a degree of autonomy when it returned to China under an agreement which ended British rule in 1997. The lack of baby-milk is the latest in a series of issues that have troubled ties between the capitalist and Communist mainland cities.
Hong Kong people are so frustrated over baby's milk that have turned to the President of the United States Barack Obama for help, launching a petition on a White House website saying that children in financial center facing malnutrition and their Government fails to resolve the problem.
Starting from Friday, the petition had attracted 13,422 signatures since it was launched on Tuesday. It is necessary to guarantee 100,000 from 28 February to draw a response from the Government of the United States.
The demand for high quality and regulated infant formulas makes in Hong Kong shot up in 2008 when a scandal of the melamine milk powder made almost 300,000 sick mainland Chinese children.
Cans of Frisolac Gold 1 infant formula were sold for HK $ 260 ($ 33.52) at a pharmacy in Hong Kong Mongkok district on Friday. It sells for 261 yuan ($ 41.97) at 360buy.com, an online retailer in China.
Pharmacy owner Charles Mui said he tried not to promote smuggling: "Just sell powdered milk for customers who use the products to feed their children."
Chinese visitors have been popping even milk powder products in Europe and Australia, while the former Portuguese territory of Macao, through the mouth of the Pearl River from Hong Kong, announced a plan on Monday to give parents priority cities in buying baby formula.
Recent fears about the quality of chicken in China hit sales at mainland branches of McDonald's and KFC Yum and further undermined consumer confidence.
($ 1 = $ 7.7555 HK) ($ 1 = 6.2188 Chinese Yuan)
(Additional reporting by Wu Venus and Stefanie McIntyre; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Robert Birsel)
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