Supermarkets are rationing baby formula to stop it being bought in bulk and sold to people in China.
Chinese-New Zealanders had been selling it online to Chinese parents, who did not want to use Chinese-made formula after the 2008 San Lu scandal, in which six children died and hundreds of thousands fell ill after drinking melamine-contaminated formula.
Foodtown, Woolworths and Countdown customers could buy only four tins of formula at a time, The New Zealand Herald reported. Pak 'n Save supermarkets had a three-tin limit.
"It's pretty much a response to unfairness that we had with a lot of people stockpiling baby formula and selling it overseas," a spokeswoman for Progressive Enterprises, which owns Foodtown, Woolworths and Countdown, said.
"We appreciate why people are doing it, but our supply is for the domestic market."
Bruce Liu, who has a Manukau warehouse, sells Karicare formula by the box-load; a box of six tins costs $164 to $284, depending on the type of formula, and he sells 100 boxes to China a week. His profit is $6000 a month.
The supermarket restrictions were making it hard for him as "80 percent of our time is spent going over all the supermarkets", he told the newspaper.
The New Zealand Food Safety Authority planned to investigate, the newspaper reported.
