Coles, Aldi to lift milk prices to help struggling dairy farmers
Supermarket giants Coles and Aldi are raising the prices of their two and three litre bottles of milk, vowing to pass the extra money onto Australian dairy farmers.
Coles and Aldi have followed Woolworths in lifting milk prices after years of protest from dairy farmers. Photo: AAP/Mal Fairclough
From tomorrow, the two supermarkets will add 10 cents per litre to each bottle, making their two-litre bottles $2.20 and three-litre bottles $3.30.
The companies each announced the step in respective statements yesterday.
It comes a month after Woolworths announced it was ending its $1 a litre milk sales, by lifting prices by 10 cents a litre and passing the extra money onto dairy farmers.
Coles and Aldi came under immediate pressure from farmers to follow Woolworths in raising their own milk prices.
The $1 a litre milk introduced by Woolworths and Coles in 2011 is widely blamed for increasing pressure on Australia’s dairy industry.
Coles Group chief executive officer Steven Cain said his company is endeavouring to help make the dairy industry more sustainable, alongside government and industry stakeholders.
But he said farmers can’t wait for such long-term changes to be made.
“We are moving to provide relief right now,” he said.
Aldi’s Managing director of buying Oliver Bongardt said the decision recognises the “significant issues” currently facing the diary industry.
“This solution is a short-term measure and will allow our processors to immediately pass additional funds to their dairy farmers outside of normal seasonal adjustments,” he said.
-InDaily with AAP
