SYDNEY: Asian consumers seeking a safer alternative to China's tainted milk products are turning to Australian dairy farmers, but their demands may be difficult to meet because Australia's grass-fed cattle can only produce so much milk. The largest Australian milk exporter, Murray Goulburn Co-operative, has seen a recent spike in Asian sales of its products since scores of Chinese dairy goods were found to contain the industrial chemical melamine, prompting one of the worst food contamination scares in decades. Murray Goulburn, which accounts for 9 percent of the global milk trade, has so far been able to accommodate the demand from its existing supply, according to Mai Beniston, the company's general manager for international sales and marketing. But any further demand for Australian milk products will be hampered by the simple fact that the country's dairy cows, which are raised primarily on open pasture, can only eat so much. Unlike in the United States, where the diets of grain-fed dairy cows can be adjusted to increase their milk supply, Beniston said there was no practical way to boost the short-term output of Australia's mainly free-range cows. "Cows in Australia graze; they're not raised in feedlots," Beniston said. "It's quite a different model, it can't respond as quickly. We don't suddenly turn on the cows. There's no real way to increase that supply." Asian consumers have shied away from Chinese-produced milk, baby formula and other dairy goods since tests revealed that several Chinese companies were selling products laced with Demand for Australian milk is rising, but dairies can't easily increase the supply. melamine, which can cause kidney stones in children. The additive has been blamed for killing four infants and sickening more than 50,000 children in mainland China. Beniston said requests for Australian-made milk products had risen by about 20 to 30 percent since the scare, particularly in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Actual sales of full cream milk powder, Murray Goulburn's main Asian export, were up about 10 percent, mostly from existing stock. But consumers hoping to find a safe haven in the "product of Australia" label may be disappointed. "To the extent that we've had some surplus, we've been able to satisfy that demand," said Beniston, "but obviously it's limited how far we can go. We've got no extra." Another Australian milk producer, National Foods, which sells its Pura brand milk products in several Asian countries, said it, too, was seeing a rise in demand for fresh, long-life and powdered milk products. In Hong Kong, where National Foods markets Pura to a largely expatriate consumer base, some stores have been struggling to keep up with the demand for the Australian-made dairy products, while Chinese and Asian-made dairy goods have languished on the shelves. "We've seen about a 15 percent lift in demand, which we have been able to meet," said a spokesman, Julian Caples. "But we're unlikely to meet much more increased demand beyond that simply, because of our scale and processing ca/ pability."