Coles, Aldi decision a good start Farmer praises end of $1 milk war
DAIRY farmer Peter Garratt welcomed the news that Coles and Aldi were scrapping their $1 milk sales, hoping it was the start of a bigger campaign.
The fourth-generation owner of his family’s property at Southbrook called the end of the $1 milk wars a “positive step”, but insisted on a larger industry overhaul.
The news on Tuesday night from Coles and Aldi comes a month after Woolworths became the first supermarket to raise prices on two-litre and three-litre milk bottles and scrap its smallest unit.
Mr Garratt told The Chronicle in February the combined factors of low prices and sweltering droughts had forced him to reconsider the profession his family had been in for nearly a century.
But he said yesterday the increase in the value of milk was a real boost for the struggling sector.
“It’s what we were advocating for right from the start,” he said.
“The Coles (announcement) won’t affect me, (but) in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, it’s Parmalat that supplies to Aldi, so that’s great.
“It’s the reason our industry is dying. I think that’s where we were at.”
But Mr Garratt said the reform could not end there, asking for a royal commission into the supermarket industry and its relationships with primary producers.
“We also wanted (a price rise) on all products in the milk fridge,” he said.
“We don’t yet have a lifting price on all the branded price yet. There’s still room for some movement.
“The industry would like to see a royal commission into how supermarkets handle fresh food.
“It comes back to how the supermarkets can almost bully the processors into tendering to suit their objectives.”