Major retailers are being urged to increase the prices of their generic milk brands to $1.50/litre.
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NSW Farmers Dairy Committee chair Colin Thompson said major supermarket chains needed to lift the price of their generic milk brands to help sustain the NSW dairy industry.“The end of the $1-a-litre milk prices at the start of the year provided some relief to dairy farmers, but a further price increase is needed to help NSW dairy farmers,” he said.“Feed and water costs are skyrocketing in this unprecedented drought, but our milk prices on-farm have only risen slightly.”
Mr Thompson said major retailers including Woolworths, Coles and Aldi would provide financial relief to farmers by raising the price of their generic milk brands, along with other dairy products such as cheese and butter.He said retail milk prices were part of a bigger picture for the dairy sector and reforming Australia’s competition framework was a way to safeguard the industry’s future.
“We need to have the power inequities along the dairy supply chain addressed but this will take time.
“A price rise is a short-term option that will provide immediate respite to our farmers.“We are at a crisis point in NSW, with 51 dairy farmers exiting the industry over the last year, and a drop in overall productivity by seven per cent.”