Oct 17, 2008 (DVB), Milk powder from China is being sold on street stalls in Rangoon at a discount after shops were unable to sell it due to consumer fears of contamination.

Sixteen brands of Chinese-produced milk powder were banned by the government and withdrawn from sale by shops after they were found last month to have been contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

Although the milk powder being sold is not one of the contaminated brands, a local resident said consumers had lost confidence in Chinese milk products in general.

"People are not buying powder from there, so they are selling them on the streets at a discount," the resident said.

"Sales are not good and the importing power is too strong. Some merchants are selling it at a discount and the people on the roadside stalls are buying and reselling them," he said.

They are piled up on roadside areas, not the usual places."

A market stallholder said that goods that previously cost 1500 kyat were now selling in roadside stalls for 1300-1400 kyat.

"Only those who don’t know buy them , those who know avoid them," he said.

Reporting by Naw Noreen