Iceland has slashed its retail price for four pints of milk to just 89p.
The retailer is claiming to offer the “cheapest milk in the UK” after cutting its price for full fat, skimmed and semi-skimmed milk from £1 to 89p over the weekend.
The price drop provoked anger on social networks, with the retailer accused of a “revolting underselling of a high-quality product” by one Twitter user, while another claimed the new 89p price was “not something to be proud of”.
However, Iceland responded by stating it had “not reduced the price we pay for milk, just the price we sell at”. The retailer said it buys milk from two processors in England, Wales and Scotland, and from a third in Northern Ireland.
Iceland’s price drop followed a week of turmoil for the dairy industry over a reduction in farmgate prices, which processors blame on a reduction in demand and global dairy commodity market volatility. Protests were led by Farmers for Action last week at a Müller dairy in Market Drayton, and a Morrisons distribution centre at Bridgewater in Somerset, with a further two planned this week at a Dairy Crest plant in Derbyshire, and a Co-op distribution centre in Hampshire.
An Iceland spokesman said that, “as a relatively small player in the UK grocery market, with a share of around 2%,” Iceland had little influence over the price farmers received for their milk. ”The company notes that the recent reductions in wholesale prices have been Europe-wide and appear to be related more to falling returns from commodity markets rather than to the price of a pint in British supermarkets,” added the spokesman. ”There is also well-publicised turmoil in the supermarket sector, and Iceland needs to differentiate itself from the competition and offer the best deals it can to its customers.”
Tesco reduced its own-label skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole milk from £1.39 to £1 each in March, which was followed by a similar reduction by Nisa, The Co-op and Sainsbury’s to £1 for a four-pint bottle. Asda also sells milk at this price point.
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