Inside the baby formula war playing out at supermarkets around Australia

Daigou shoppers clearing shelves of popular baby formula brands are clashing with furious parents who say their children have been forced to go without the product. 

Behind the chaotic scenes of the baby formula war unfolding around Australia, there are buyers wearing disguises to avoid tin limits, abuse in supermarket aisles, and a network of suburban warehouses delivering the ‘white gold’ overseas. 

Daigou is a Chinese term for someone who buys on behalf of someone else and sells at a higher price, with baby formula one of most sought-after products in China.

Several videos have emerged of purchasers filling baskets with baby formula and dashing to put the product away before returning in different outfits to buy more. 

Several videos have emerged of shoppers piling up their baskets with baby formula and dashing to put the product away before returning in a different outfit to purchase more

In order to control the demand for baby formula, Coles and Woolworths introduced a two-can limit per customer. 

Woolworths then changed their limit to eight tins per person but eventually went back to the original two to control the supply and demand. 

Demand for foreign baby formula products in China has skyrocketed over the last decade, after locally-produced infant formula left six children dead and made more than 300,000 ill in 2008. 

Each tin would be sold for about $100 in China.  

But the sales restrictions have not stopped daigous from purchasing formula in big groups, leaving the shelves empty and other mothers in desperate need of the certain formula begging for something to be done.

An undercover investigation by A Current Affair uncovered several warehouses packed to the brim with baby formula boxes being prepped to be shipped to China.  

Demand for foreign baby formula products in China has skyrocketed over the last decade, after locally-produced infant formula left six children dead and made more than 300,000 ill in 2008

The Real Mumma blogger Adele Barbaro told the program that her local supermarket has a two-tin limit but shelves are always empty

The Real Mumma blogger Adele Barbaro told the program that her local supermarket has a two-tin limit but shelves are always empty.

‘These 20, 25 people, are running in, buying two tins, running around the corner to a lady that’s ready to go with shopping trolleys or a man ready to go with the boot open and piling it in,’ she said. 

Last month, pallets of a2 Platinum formula have been stored at a Kennards Self Storage shed at Auburn, in Sydney’s west, every morning for the past two months. 

With each pallet able to hold up more than 120 boxes, the image appeared to show at least 250 boxes of formula being unloaded into the self storage warehouse.

A Coles worker also confirmed that people will change their clothes multiple times so the supermarket staff won’t recognise them.  

‘It’s gotten to a point I never thought I would see it reach with the lengths people are going to obtain it,’ he said. 

A Coles worker also confirmed that people will change their clothes multiple times so the supermarket staff won’t recognise them