Milk set to go up by 12c a litre

The price of milk is set to rise for the second time in two months, by up to 12 cents a litre, after one of the main suppliers said it would pass on increases in its costs to consumers.

Glanbia said it was still playing catch-up on significant increases in the cost of milk supplies and an increase in the retail cost of milk was now inevitable.

Colin Gordon, chief executive of Glanbia Consumer Foods, blamed international supply-and-demand factors for the latest rise and said it had been absorbing the increasing cost of raw material for much of this year.

"Following many years of static milk prices, we now simply have no choice but to pass on the historically high cost increases in raw materials," he said.

"Clearly this is regrettable. We have carried these costs for a number of months and simply can no longer do so."

Meanwhile, average petrol prices rose by 3.6 per cent, to 118.8 cents litre, in October, according to the latest monthly survey by AA Roadwatch. Diesel rose by almost 7 cents to 117.3 cents per litre.

Further increases can be expected after leading oil companies announced last week they were putting up their prices.

AA Roadwatch spokesman Conor Faughnan has urged Minister for Finance Brian Cowen not to increase fuel taxes a in next month's Budget. The Irish Road Haulage Association claimed that increasing fuel prices would destroy the transportation industry and have a catastrophic effect on the economy.

Inflation is at 4.8 per cent and is expected to rise further in the coming months.

© 2007 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times