A 47-year-old man was fined $5,000 for illegally exporting nine cans of powdered formula after pleading guilty today at the Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts.

Customs officers stopped the man yesterday at the Shenzhen Bay Control Point departure hall and found 11 cans of powdered formula with a total net weight of 9.9 kg in his personal baggage, exceeding the limit for personal use of 1.8 kg. Officers arrested him for failing to present an export license.

The new Import & Export (General)(Amendment) Regulation, which took effect on March 1, prohibits the unlicensed export of powdered formula, including milk powder and soya milk powder, for infants and children under 36 months.

Offenders may face two years in jail and a $500,000 fine.