Tuesday, 14 July 2015 16:05

Milking It

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Labour's former leader and infamous dead fish holder David Shearer has been making a lot of noise about milk costing more than Coke.

But as a mate of the Hound points out, milk is the product of a wondrously complex biological, economic and logistical process, limited in its production by environmental and regulatory constraints and constrained in its provision by its perishability. Whereas Coke is essentially sugary water. Why is milk more expensive in New Zealand than in London and Sydney? That’s simple. British and Australian supermarkets use milk as a loss leader to encourage shoppers to buy other products – like Coke! What does Shearer want? Does he want supermarkets in NZ to screw dairy farmers as they have done in Australia? No wonder he got the boot as Labour leader.

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