by I just recorded a radio interview for ABC Toowoomba on the dairy farmers’ campaign against supermarkets selling milk for . Here are my notes for the discussion Consumer prices have increased 20 per cent since 2010, when the milk price was .30/litre, so to maintain the real price, the current price would have to be around .56. Dairy producers in Australia have been under continuous pressure to increase herd size and reduce costs, with those unable to do so having to leave the industry or accept declining incomes. I first researched this topic in the early 1980s, when farm numbers had already fallen by about 50 per cent. Since 1979, the number of dairy farms in Australia has fallen from 22 000 t0 5700. In Queensland the number has gone from 3000 to less than 400.
Topics:
John Quiggin considers the following as important: Economics - General
This could be interesting, too:
John Quiggin writes Two problems with Modern Monetary Theory
John Quiggin writes Energy return: ratio or net value (revised)
John Quiggin writes A whirlpool of speculation around GameStop squeeze
John Quiggin writes WallStreetBets and financialised capitalism
I just recorded a radio interview for ABC Toowoomba on the dairy farmers’ campaign against supermarkets selling milk for $1. Here are my notes for the discussion
Consumer prices have increased 20 per cent since 2010, when the milk price was $1.30/litre, so to maintain the real price, the current price would have to be around $1.56.
Dairy producers in Australia have been under continuous pressure to increase herd size and reduce costs, with those unable to do so having to leave the industry or accept declining incomes. I first researched this topic in the early 1980s, when farm numbers had already fallen by about 50 per cent.
Since 1979, the number of dairy farms in Australia has fallen from 22 000 t0 5700. In Queensland the number has gone from 3000 to less than 400.
However, because of increased herd size the number of cows hasn’t changed much . Milk output per cow increased rapidly up to about 2000, so total production grew over that period before stabilising
The “cost-price squeeze” affects most agricultural producers but the problems of dairy farmers are exacerbated by the market power of supermarkets and their use of milk as a “loss leader”. The decision to raise the price charged to consumers represents at least a symbolic step away from that practice.