After bread, it's milk's turn
Photo: Yoni Reif
State looking into raising milk prices
Two weeks after bread prices were increased, Agriculture Ministry and Finance Ministry officials negotiating whether to raise prices of dairy products
The Agriculture and Finance Ministries are discussing the demand of dairy farms to raise the prices of dairy products. Both ministries oversee and control the prices of milk and milk products such as cottage cheese.
The government is supposed to update the prices every two years, as needed. The prices are determined according to the "target price" – the price for which dairy farmers sell milk to dairy producers, and according to dairy products' manufacturing costs by companies like Tnuva, Strauss, Tara and others.
In the past two years, milk prices remained the same as there was no inflation, and milk farmers had even gradually reduced the price of milk. Recently, however, the farmers began pressuring the government to increase the price because of growing production costs such as an increase in gas prices, followed by a rise in the prices of electricity, raw materials and shipping containers, as well as a slight increase in the minimum wage and the signing of new salary agreements with some of the dairy farms workers.
The dairy manufacturers want to raise prices by several percent. The Finance Ministry is examining the issue and has yet to reach a decision.
On another related front, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor decided two weeks ago to raise the prices of subsidized bread by seven percent. The decision stirred row since the new Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor Eli Yishai promised to implement a social agenda in his office. Following the public outcry, the increase was reduced to three percent.
