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Retailers fret sales decline over planned ban of baby formula discounts
Retail business stakeholders are concerned about the ban on promotions and discounts of baby formula products under Government Regulation No. 28/2024. The regulation aims to promote breastfeeding for infants.
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A visitor (top) looks at baby formula on July 18, 2013, at a stand at the 13th Shanghai International Children-Baby-Maternity industry Expo in Shanghai. China's growing economic prosperity has helped fuel demand for infant formula, with many parents suspicious of local products after a series of food scandals including an incident in 2008 when six children died and 300,000 others fell ill after drinking milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. (AFP/Peter Parks)
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etail business stakeholders have raised concerns over a government plan to ban promotions and discounts for baby formula amid a push to encourage breastfeeding.
This was stipulated in Government Regulation No. 28/2024, an implementing regulation for the new health law introduced last year.
It bars producers and distributors from promoting baby formula in health care facilities, door-to-door and through discounts at supermarkets. It also restricts mass media, social media and commercial promotions.
Roy Nicholas Mandey, who chairs the Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association (Aprindo), said the ban and related restrictions could threaten the performance of retail businesses.
"Baby formula is mostly for infants. So if it is subject to various prohibitions and regulations, surely there will be a decline in [sales]," Roy said on Wednesday, as quoted by Bisnis.
Read also: Indonesia aims to bring obesity rate below 3 percent by 2030
Roy went on to say that the ban could keep consumers from fulfilling their children's nutritional needs with formula, arguing that there are mothers who cannot produce enough breast milk and donors are not always accessible.
