Globalisation To Blame For Domestic Dairy Price Hikes

Green Party Agriculture Spokesperson Ian Ewen-Street MP today said globalisation was one of the main reasons why New Zealanders were facing up to a 22 per cent price hike for domestically produced dairy products.

"We now have this incredible situation in which dairy production costs have not risen but, due to the low New Zealand dollar leading to increases in dairy export prices, our domestic prices are also sky-rocketing," he said.

"So we now have dairy farmers making a great deal of money out of a low New Zealand dollar and increasing export revenues, yet the high prices that they are fetching on the international market will also be extracted from domestic consumers."

Mr Ewen-Street said having the price of a domestically produced and marketed product dictated by international markets was globalisation gone mad.

"The level of the New Zealand dollar and international market trends have absolutely nothing to do with how much it costs to produce dairy products here or on the local demand for these products, and these factors should have no impact on what we all pay for milk or cheese."

Mr Ewen-Street said milk and cheese were staple parts of the New Zealand diet and these projected price increases would price dairy products out of the reach of poorer New Zealanders.

"We are lucky in New Zealand that we can produce food relatively cheaply, and domestic prices should reflect those low production costs. There are no dairy companies focussing mainly on the domestic market, and so no-one is out there looking after the New Zealand consumer.

"In a week where the mega-merger to form GlobalCo has just been given the go-ahead by farmers, this price shock comes as a warning to look at how prices are being set in the dairy markets, and what protection there is to keep prices stable for domestic consumers.

"The upside for farmers of the booming dairy export markets is that they can afford imported, new 4-wheel drives and tractors with their record profits. What we don't want to see is families who can't afford to buy milk for their kids at the same time."

Ends

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