Milk price wars are very hard to make sense of. The milk price war is affecting small convenience stores and smaller supermarkets and it is causing deep concern to dairy farmers (we still have a few locally in our Valley and in Samford Valley). Although Woolworths and Coles have promised to absorb the cost National President of the United Retail Federation Scott Driscoll is less sure and says it is a market strategy designed to wipe out the competition. Once the competition is gone there is no final line of defence. They can then put whatever price they want to on their products and consumers will be left without any other option.
We think this milk price war will quite likely reduce local resilience in regards to milk small businesses and dairy farmers.