That jug of milk at your local store is going to cost you a bit more starting in February.
The New Brunswick Farm Products Commission announced Monday that the minimum price will rise by 10 cents per litre on Feb. 1.
Bob Shannon, chair of the commission, said the increase is needed based on higher production costs for dairy producers and processors.
“Paying more for milk or any item has an impact on consumers, but the increase is required to provide the resources for the producers to continue producing milk and maintain dairy farm numbers in New Brunswick,” Shannon said in a news release.
The commission said dairy farmers are paying more for feed — an increase of about 27 per cent in the past 12 to 18 months — along with machinery and equipment repairs, fuel and oil, and hired labour.
On top of that, dairy processors have faced higher costs for packaging, manufacturing, transportation and distribution.
Wietze Dykstra, chair of the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick, said farm costs in the last few years have outpaced inflation, and this increase was applied to recapture those cost increases.
“Unlike other food commodities, dairy farmers only adjust the price they charge for their raw milk they deliver to the manufacturing plant once a year, which in the past kept pace with or even lagged behind inflation,” said Dykstra.
Pricing under the School Milk Program will remain unchanged for the current school year, according to the commission.
Dairy producers and processors subsidize the program by about $800,000 per year and supply about one million litres of milk to students in kindergarten to Grade 12.
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