Since earlier this week, when hearing news about the explosions at a Japanese nuke plant, and the risk of a nuclear crisis; Vietnamese mothers have been rushing to purchase Japanese formulas, fearing that Japanese dairy products will not be available in Vietnam in the future.

The news in local newspapers is that people in Hong Kong and Malaysia are queuing up to purchases dairy products imported from Japan, which were made before the earthquake and the nuclear explosion, has frightened Vietnamese mothers. The women have also been rushing to collect formulas to store, fearing that the next consignments of imports would be infected with radioactivity, or Vietnam may prohibit formula imports from Japan.

Ngoc Anh, an officer of the Ministry of Health, said she has purchased eight boxes of Meji 9 powder milk at once, worth four million dong. Previously, Anh only bought one or two boxes every time.

“I don’t think that Japanese formulas will have problems, because Japanese manufacturing technologies are very good. However, I am still worried a little bit when reading the news,” Anh said, explaining why she decided to store formulas. “I am also afraid that it will be more difficult to import Japanese products in the future”.

Meanwhile, a lot of mothers have decided to use formulas with other brands. Anh Dao, an officer of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group, said that in the afternoon of March 17, “she called a supplier to order Wakado formula, but she was told that products have run out.” Therefore, she has decided to replace Wakado with an Australian brand. The Australian product is selling at 400,000 dong per 900 gram box.

Owners of dairy shops in Hanoi have also reported sharp increases in the buying of formula products these days. Fearing that Japanese formulas may be affected with radioactivity in the future, people have been rushing to purchase the products, leading to the purchasing power increasing sharply by 2-3 times

Thanh Hai, the owner of an online dairy shop, has also said that the number of orders has increased surprisingly. “There has been no official conclusion about if dairy products will be affected by radioactivity. However, parents are still whispering in each other’s ears about the radioactivity affect,” she said.

A representative from the Hoang Duong Company, the official distributor of Wakado formulas, has confirmed that the demand for the products has been increasing dramatically over the last week, and that the company now nearly has run out of products to supply.

The representative has advised consumers not to be too worried and to wait official conclusions from management agencies.

“Made in Japan formulas are safe to humans, and they always have a high quality because they are manufactured under modern technologies, which allows to measure the radioactivity level right in the production process,” he said, adding that no need to worry about the quality of Japanese formula products.

He went on to say that “the Wakado factory is located in Tokyo in the south of Japan, which was not severely affected by the tsunami and earthquake and nuclear leak. The factory has been operating on a normal track. It is expected that the next import consignment of Wakado formulas will arrive in Vietnam in some days.

The representative has also denied the information on some forums that Hoang Duong has raised the sale price by 60,000 dong per box due to the short supply. He said “there have not been any changes in the input material price and the production costs at the factory in Japan, at least for the next several months.” However, Hoang Duong has got the permission from the Hanoi Finance Department to raise the sale price by 8 percent since March 15, due to the import tariff increase of five percent.

An official from the Ministry of Healthcare has also affirmed that in Japan, formulas are manufactured under strict control procedures.

Nguyen Nga