Move to protect Hong Kong milk formula stocks by making it 'reserved commodity'

The city is considering making infant milk formula a "reserved commodity" after executive councillor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee floated the idea to restrict exports and ensure local needs are met.

Ip, who proposed the measure on Monday, said the change would require only an "easy" addition to the law and could immediately curb cross-border trading of such daily necessities.

She suggested each traveller could carry only two cans of milk powder when leaving the city.

"When there is a shortage of an essential food on which Hong Kong relies heavily on imports, there should be more regulation of price and stabilisation of supply," she said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor yesterday chaired an inter-departmental meeting to discuss how to secure a steady supply of baby milk formula for local mothers.

The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said: "We know about [Ip's] suggestion and will conduct an internal study of it."

Currently, the city's sole reserved commodity is rice. The government applies controls to ensure a stable supply and to keep a reserve stock sufficient to feed the public for 15 days in case of emergencies or shortages.