Second price hike this year: Woolies and ALDI increase the cost of milk
ALDI and Woolworths are increasing the retail price of their home brand milk by 10 cents.
ALDI raised its price by 10 cents per litre on Wednesday, while Woolworths is set to up the cost of its milk starting today. One-litre milk at the stores will now cost $1.29, while two-litre milk has been brought up to $2.39 and three-litre to $3.59.
This is the second price increase for the two supermarkets this year – in March ALDI and Woolworths abolished the $1 per litre pricing on milk along with Coles.
Coles has not indicated if it will match the new price hike.
Both retailers attributed the rise to the hikes in farm gate milk prices. A Woolworths spokesperson told Yahoo! News that the prices were adjusted following “ongoing whole-of-market cost pressures”.
“Since February we have seen farm gate prices increase significantly and they are forecast to continue rising throughout the year,” said the spokesperson.
“As a result of these farm gate price movements, we have been paying our suppliers even more for milk and other dairy products across the category over recent months.”
ALDI told the ABC that the move was a “direct result of the recent increase in the farm gate milk prices agreed between our milk suppliers and the dairy farmers”.
Graham Forbes, chairman of industry advocacy group Dairy Connect, said while the announcement is welcome, more could be done to ensure a sustainable national supply chain and avoid foreign milk imports.
“I think a lot of people would like to see [the rises] continue and get up around $1.50 a litre where all sectors of the industry could survive and be sustainable,” Forbes told the ABC.
“We need all three – the farmers, the retailers, and the processors – to be profitable, and we certainly need more movement to allow that to happen properly.”