“Unnecessary Action”: Farmers are annoyed by the drop in butter prices

As reported the butter prices of the Schärdinger brand will be reduced by more than six percent for all Austrian trading partners.

“As the market leader in the media, announcing a 6 percent price reduction for butter and at the same time reducing the milk price for all producers by more than 3.5 percent is no longer explainable for us,” Ewald Grünzweil is quoted as saying in a broadcast. Grünzweil is chairman of the IG-Milch, an interest group of farmers.

“While the consumers feel almost nothing in their wallets when the price of butter falls, such unnecessary actions on the dairy farms destroy sorely needed added value,” added Grünzweil.

IG Milch chairman calculates

According to IG-Milch, customers save less than one cent: according to AMA-Marketing GmbH, the statistical average consumption of butter per person in Austria is 5.3 kg. At the current price, this corresponds to costs of one euro per week or 15 cents per day. The savings with a 6 percent price reduction would then be 6 cents per week or less than one cent per day.

Farmers currently get 56.4 cents per liter of raw milk, Grünzweil said in an interview with the APA. As of February 1st, the price will be reduced by 2 cents net. The loss of income for an average full-time farm with 250,000 kg/year is around 5,650 euros per year.

“We are delivered”

In the previous year there had been several price increases, but these were urgently needed in the opinion of the farmers. Because the enormous price increases for energy would particularly affect energy-intensive milk production. The fact that the butter price in particular has to be used again and again for emotional price debates is incomprehensible in view of the proportionality and makes an objective discussion difficult, said Grünzweil. “Competition is eliminated, we are at the mercy of the dairies for better or for worse,” said the chairman of IG-Milch to the APA.

Grünzweil criticized the behavior of the Chamber of Agriculture and the Farmers’ Association, which made no constructive contribution to these incomprehensible actions by Berglandmilch and the irrelevant media discussion about the price of butter, as particularly disappointing for IG-Milch.