Asda has risked incurring the wrath of farmers by reducing the price of four pints of milk to just £1.
The 15% cut is likely to anger farmers who see such retail price reductions as devaluing the true price of milk in consumers’ minds – even if the cuts do not directly impact farmers.
Asda’s new ‘everyday low price’ of £1 for four pints replaces its ‘linksave’ promotion, which has run for the past two years, offering two four pint bottles for £2.
However, the supermarket cannot be accused of passing the price decrease directly onto farmers. Yesterday it announced a 2p per litre increase to the premium it pays them, to 3ppl, in a bid to alleviate the tough market conditions farmers face.
“We take our responsibilities to farmers and our customers seriously, which is why we are investing to keep money at the two most important ends of the supply chain – in farmers’ and customers’ pockets,” said a spokeswoman.
Asda farmers were recently hit by a 2ppl price cut from processor Arla, which supplies all of Asda’s own label fresh liquid milk.
This afternoon, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, The Co-operative and Waitrose were holding firm, and still selling four pints of milk for £1.18, although Tesco and Sainsbury’s were offering a two for £2 deal on 1% fat milk.
Asda’s lower milk price is part of a new lower pricing strategy which also saw it lower the price of certain lines of bread and butter to £1 and packs of mince to £2.
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