Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci says the supermarket giant is effectively serving "50 million Australians, not 24 million" as panic buying of products rips goods from its shelves. And Mr Banducci, who announced new limits on the amount of goods each customer can buy, implored Australians to purchase only what they need so supermarkets can restock products.

After holding talks with the government, Mr Banducci and the heads of other supermarket chains will stop short of implementing wartime-style rationing methods amid growing fear about the coronavirus. But they are warning they face a difficult balancing act of returning stock levels to normal without instilling further panic-buying through demand-limiting strategies.

Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci says the company is currently serving 50 million shoppers a week, rather than 24 million. Credit:Janie Barrett, Rhett Wyman

"It's virtually impossible for any of us to keep up with it," he said, referring to other supermarket operators such as Coles and IGA. "It's physically not possible."

"If all of our customers collectively across all retailers in Australia just bought what they needed, plus a little bit more, we would have everything in stock that they need."