Coles has announced it will be increasing the price of its store-brand milk by 10c per litre to $1.70 for one litre and $3.30 for two litres, the ABC is reporting.
“We don’t take the decision to raise prices lightly, particularly because of the increased cost-of-living pressures faced by our customers,” a Coles spokesperson said.
The jump means the price has risen 21 per cent in just over a year. Coles says the price rise is due to “ongoing cost increases in the supply chain”.
But representatives from farmers group Dairy Australia say the real reason is that the amount of milk produced in Australia has been steadily dropping, and the nation has roughly half the milk producers it had back in 2011 – when the supermarket giants first introduced milk at $1 per litre.
That move forced many milk producers to close their farms. And when coupled with widespread flooding across Australia in recent years, milk production is way down, and there is fierce competition to buy it, driving up prices.
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