By WEIJIA YUE

International students trying to get by in Melbourne have discovered there’s a much more lucrative alternative to being paid $10 an hour, or even less, in a Chinese restaurant.

And they’ve proved so successful, the Federal Government has became involved.

Australian baby formula is one key target of young Chinese students who have discovered they can use social media to set up small businesses supplying scarce resources to a voracious Chinese domestic market.

All kinds of health and personal care items, clothing and shoes are finding their way to China via these small businesses, bringing a healthy profit to their sellers.

The media they use is WeChat, a rapidly growing mobile phone text and voice messaging app first released in China in January 2011, now with 600 million active users (up 150 million in the past couple of months).

Entrepreneurs post pictures of available items on the site, and go out and buy when they have the orders.

A report this week in the Fairfax press said half of all infant formula sold in Australian supermarkets was being sent overseas. 

Melbourne University Masters student Echo Xu started her business in May and said she could earn at least $2000 a month sending goods to China. A reasonable proportion of that is baby formula.

“I sell everything my customers want and Customs permits. From Ugg boots to snacks, even including Tim Tams,” she said.

She also sells Karicare Goat infant milk stage 2 (for babies more than six months old). According to her accounts for June, Ms Xu paid $33 for each container, and sold it for $48. In that month she sold 30 cases.

And she is only one of many students doing the same thing.

Last month Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck held talks with Coles and Woolworth to try to find a solution to the problem of a shortage of infant formula. 

However, last week shoppers accused Woolworths of failing to enforce limits, showing film footage of a shopper with a trolley full of formula. In the news.com.au report, a Woolworths spokesman said the store involved would be contacted to correct its procedures. 

But even with limits of four cans a customer imposed at checkout, formula is selling out as soon as supermarkets can stock the shelves.

Woolworths worker Rici said the problem was the number of people who came to buy infant formula and milk powder.

“It’s not one person, it is hundreds of them buying infant formula for business use,” Rici said. And one person can simply do multiple transactions.

Tafe student Gao Jiangminhui started her WeChat business in August 2013. Products she typically deals with personal care and health products that include goat’s milk soap, A2 milk powder and evening primrose oil.

She goes to Woolworths on Saturdays. She said that’s when the supermarket will stock A2 milk powder.

“It will be sold out just in two to three hours,” Ms Gao said. To get the products she has orders for, she will travel to several chemist warehouses and supermarkets across various suburbs.

Her husband, RMIT Masters student Michael Wang, estimated she made about $4000 a month from her business.

Ms Xu’s business goes beyond beauty and personal care products and also deals in fashion items such as Ugg boots and luxury handbags.

“The price in China is much higher than mine maybe because of the Customs tax. For example, one pair of Ugg boots is $199 in an Australian Ugg shop, and I always sell them at $269 per pair. However its price [from a store in China] is 1600 Chinese yuan, which is more than $320,” she said.

“My customers think they could get better and more original products with less money from me, so why would they chose the Chinese official shops?”

In June, she had overall sales of $5490, with profits of $2048 – 37.29 per cent. She said this was low in comparison with others she knew.

“I am not like other WeChat business people – they sell their products at a twice the price they bought,” she said.

Ms Xu said it was a much better option than the job she first had.

“I have done a job as a ‘welcome person’ in a Chinese restaurant. My job was just standing in front of the door of the restaurant and invite people to dine in, which has $10 per hour salary.

“For a month I could earn no more than $300. However, now I could earn at least $2000 per month by WeChat business,” Xu said.

A case study

Michael Wang and Gao Jiangminhui live in a new one-bedroom apartment in Melbourne CBD, and were married this year.

Wang said he did not like his wife's new online business at first and the amount of work involved put pressure on their relationship. “I didn’t think it is a job that she could rely on in the future,” he said. But in the end the income she could generate meant he "finally turned to support her business", he said.

Gao has to be available to chat when her customers are awake and online. Usually, that is after 9pm Beijing time (12pm Melbourne summer time). Wang, who studies and works several shifts a week in a sushi restaurant, says he has often fallen asleep by then.

On weekends he would like to spend time studying and "hanging out" with his wife, but doesn't often get the chance.

"There are hundreds of supermarkets and chemist shops in the Melbourne region, and there is a possibility that at any time the shop will stock the products we are looking for. Thus, when I have free time and want to relax a bit, I am asked to go to buy products for her,” Wang said.

"We used to like to watch movies and go to beach on the weekends, but now we usually go to buy products in far-distant suburbs."