Saturday, 17 September 2016 09:15

$1/L milk not here – yet

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As Australia's competition watchdog gears up to investigate that country’s dairy crisis, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has pointed out that New Zealand doesn’t have $1/L milk marketing ploys despite having the same retailers.

But he’s only half-right. Australian retailer Woolworths owns the Countdown chain of supermarkets in NZ. Countdown is locked in fierce competition with the NZ-owned Pak n Save chain. The other Australian player, Coles, doesn’t operate here. And there’s nothing preventing Countdown offering milk at $1/L as does its parent company. Joyce acknowledges cheap milk has hurt dairy farmers for years, a problem now made more harmful by depressed export prices.

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