Milk price wars begin

"Can I applaud Nosh for kicking off a supermarket price war for fresh milk in one location at least," says Willy Leferink, Federated Farmers Dairy chairperson.

"Frankly, Nosh is doing more to open up competition at the retail end than any narrowly focused inquiry can ever achieve.

"If Nosh's milk was priced in Australian dollars and didn't have the GST our milk attracts, it works out to be equivalent to A$0.68.

"Even Karori New World in Wellington is selling two litres of its budget milk for $2.99, as long as you spend $25 in-store.

"If you remove our GST and price that milk in Australian dollars, then it works out to be equivalent to A$1.01 per litre. That's only one Aussie cent more than what Coles is selling its milk for in Australia. Milk Coles is spending a lot of money each week underwriting.

"But if you go to another New World in Wellington that same bottle will set you back $3.65. That's not only 22% more but tells me that margins at the retail end are pretty healthy.

"That's why we'd like to back Nosh chief executive Clinton Beuvink. People need to support those local dairies and petrol stations that are selling cheap milk. The big supermarkets rely on being convenient but convenient doesn't make them the cheapest.

"Federated Farmers hopes this milk skirmish is the first step in a wider retail milk price war between Foodstuffs and Progressive. It's happened in the UK and Australia so why not here?

"The focus really needs to be on the supermarkets because if dairies can sell milk cheaper and a small supermarket like Nosh can sell it as a loss leader, surely Foodstuffs and Progressive can do the same?

"In two locations at least, Foodstuff franchisees already are," Leferink says.