Just last week Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud called on shoppers to shun supermarkets’ $1-a-litre house brands and buy processor-owned brands for $1.50-a-litre instead.
“The best thing shoppers can do is buy branded milk, not supermarket brand milk or better still, shop at independent grocers,” Mr Littleproud said.
He was joined by Queensland Nationals MP Llew O’Brien who said “the best way to ensure that value for farmers is preserved and maintained through the supply chain is to buy branded milk.
But the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry into the dairy industry found processors were paying dairy farmers the same for milk, whether it went into supermarket house-branded bottles or their own $1.50-a-litre brands.
The ACCC used its powers to examine processors’ contracts with supermarkets, finding: “almost all contracts for the supply of private label milk have clauses that allow processors to pass-through movements in farmgate prices to supermarkets”.
“As a result, there is no direct relationship between retail private label milk prices and farmgate prices,” the ACCC inquiry found.
