Fair rate deserved
Source: DairyNews.today
Australians are paying the lowest prices per litre for milk in the industrialised world, with farmers urging supermarkets to rethink their pricing practices.
Aldi, Coles and Woolworths currently price their respective generic milk brands at $1.65 for a litre bottle, with three litre varieties even cheaper at $1.55 per litre.
While no longer at the rock bottom $1 a litre days of the 2010s, shoppers in comparative western nations such as Great Britain, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States all pay the equivalent of more than $A2 a litre. Australian Dairy Farmers president Ben Bennett said while Australian shoppers were willing to cop short-term price hits to everything from bananas and pineapples to beef and potatoes, dairy was curiously buffeted.
“The rest of the western world pays a realistic price for milk when they shop at their supermarket. Australian shoppers are paying a fantasy price,” he said. “Of course, it should be at least $2 a litre. Most soft drink brands have been more than $2 a litre for years now. “And at the end of the day, soft drink is sugar and fizzy water, it’s dirt cheap to produce. “Dairy farmers deserve a fair price at the farmgate and no matter what supermarkets say, their pricing has had a flattening effect on the wider industry.”
In New Zealand, Kiwi shoppers are charged $NZ3 ($A2.64) for a litre of Wool-worths NZ milk while arch rival New World charges $NZ2.99 ($A2.63). Prices are also higher than $A2 in other major economies with British shoppers paying an average $A2.20; Canada, $A2.29; France, $2.44; Germany, $A2.32; South Africa, $2.05; and the US, $A2.05.
An Aldi spokesman said the supermarket would “continue to work with our supply partners to review pricing across the dairy category as required.” A Coles spokeswoman said: “We introduced a direct sourcing model for our own brand milk in 2019 and extended this to cheese in 2021 to ensure we could provide competitive and guaranteed farmgate prices to dairy farmers directly. “ Wool-worths was contacted The Weekly Times for comment.
NSW Farmers dairy committee chairman Malcolm Holm said supermarkets had set unrealistic pricing expectations ever since the January 2011 milk price cut to $1 a litre.
“The processors were bending over backwards during the floods to ensure there was an uninterrupted supply of milk. From a consumer psychology view, I wonder if that is the right approach because shoppers just expect milk to always be there and always be cheap,” he said. “As they say: You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. “When there’s a cyclone in Queensland, the price of bananas goes through the roof — same thing with potatoes a few years ago, there were cutbacks on chips and mash. “But with milk, we’re expected to wear the prices no matter what.”
While no longer at the rock bottom $1 a litre days of the 2010s, shoppers in comparative western nations such as Great Britain, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States all pay the equivalent of more than $A2 a litre. Australian Dairy Farmers president Ben Bennett said while Australian shoppers were willing to cop short-term price hits to everything from bananas and pineapples to beef and potatoes, dairy was curiously buffeted.
“The rest of the western world pays a realistic price for milk when they shop at their supermarket. Australian shoppers are paying a fantasy price,” he said. “Of course, it should be at least $2 a litre. Most soft drink brands have been more than $2 a litre for years now. “And at the end of the day, soft drink is sugar and fizzy water, it’s dirt cheap to produce. “Dairy farmers deserve a fair price at the farmgate and no matter what supermarkets say, their pricing has had a flattening effect on the wider industry.”
In New Zealand, Kiwi shoppers are charged $NZ3 ($A2.64) for a litre of Wool-worths NZ milk while arch rival New World charges $NZ2.99 ($A2.63). Prices are also higher than $A2 in other major economies with British shoppers paying an average $A2.20; Canada, $A2.29; France, $2.44; Germany, $A2.32; South Africa, $2.05; and the US, $A2.05.
An Aldi spokesman said the supermarket would “continue to work with our supply partners to review pricing across the dairy category as required.” A Coles spokeswoman said: “We introduced a direct sourcing model for our own brand milk in 2019 and extended this to cheese in 2021 to ensure we could provide competitive and guaranteed farmgate prices to dairy farmers directly. “ Wool-worths was contacted The Weekly Times for comment.
NSW Farmers dairy committee chairman Malcolm Holm said supermarkets had set unrealistic pricing expectations ever since the January 2011 milk price cut to $1 a litre.
“The processors were bending over backwards during the floods to ensure there was an uninterrupted supply of milk. From a consumer psychology view, I wonder if that is the right approach because shoppers just expect milk to always be there and always be cheap,” he said. “As they say: You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. “When there’s a cyclone in Queensland, the price of bananas goes through the roof — same thing with potatoes a few years ago, there were cutbacks on chips and mash. “But with milk, we’re expected to wear the prices no matter what.”
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