Asda shoppers are now paying £1.65 for a four-pint bottle of own-label milk following a series of price hikes across its liquid milk aisle this week.
The 10p price increase, implemented on 1 November, means four pints of milk costs 45.3% more than at the start of the year.
The move coincided with a 6p rise in the price of a pint of milk to 95p – making the line 72.7% more expensive than it was on 3 January, analysis of Assosia data shows.
Asda has also added 5p to the price of a two-pinter, which now comes at £1.30 – a 46.1% hike on its January price. Meanwhile, the price of a six-pinter rose 16p to £2.35, making it 46.9% more expensive.
It marks the latest round of a seemingly endless wave of milk price inflation across the major mults since the start of the year.
The average price of a four-pinter in the rest of the traditional big four, Aldi and Lidl, stood at £1.55 as The Grocer went to press – or just under 35% higher than the £1.15 market average of at the start of 2022.
Other notable price rises over the past month include a 10p jump for a Tesco organic two-pint bottle of milk to £1.65, representing a 43.5% increase since January.
Elsewhere, a two-litre bottle of Aldi Cowbelle filtered milk rose by 6p to £1.65 in mid-October, making the product 38.7% more expensive than it was in January.
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A pint of Waitrose Duchy Organics homogenised milk has seen the milk category’s biggest price increase. At £1.20, it is 84.6% more expensive than it was on 3 January.
Milk price rises were described as a key driver in an 11.6% increase in food price inflation during October, according to the BRC-Nielsen IQ Shop Price Index, published this week. Fresh food inflation accelerated even higher, up 13.3% on October levels.
And they are unlikely to stop rising. Prices would need to keep climbing to combat ongoing inflationary pressures at farm level, suggested Medina Freshways joint-MD Bali Nijjar.
In a letter to milk suppliers announcing a hold in its market-leading farmgate milk price of 50p per litre for December, Nijjar stressed milk remained “undervalued” in retail, and called on the rest of the market to continue to drive farmgate prices up.
“Farmers are still under pressure following a very tough two years and they need to be encouraged to remain as dairy farmers,” Nijjar said. And unless other suppliers paid a higher price and increased “to our level, we will be forced to review our leading position in the new year”, he warned.
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