Aldi and Lidl have announced price cuts on their own-brand milk products, following a similar move by Tesco in May. Aldi plans to reduce the cost of all its own-brand milk products by an average of 10 cents, although the date for passing on the savings to shoppers has yet to be confirmed. Lidl has already implemented a 10 cent reduction on its two-litre carton of milk, bringing the price down from €2.19 to €2.09. Tesco will reduce the price of its own-brand two-litre fresh milk to €2.09, down 10 cents, from 3 July. Lidl estimates that the move will result in €3m in savings for Irish shoppers.
Lidl CEO JP Scally said the company was “very conscious of the cost-of-living challenges facing our customers” and had dropped the prices of hundreds of household staple items in recent weeks. He added: “We were the first retailer in Ireland to drop the price of milk in May and we’re proud to be leading the way once again with this latest price cut.” Aldi’s group managing director, Niall O’Connor, said the company reviewed the market daily to ensure it remained the best value retailer. Tesco Ireland’s commercial director, Joe Manning, said the company would “continue to work closely with our suppliers to pass on price cuts to our customers whenever we can”.
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has expressed concern that a price war on milk could damage producers who specialise in fresh milk. An IFA spokesperson said farmers had faced significant increases in production costs and that those who focused on fresh milk all year round had even higher costs. The spokesperson added that if these farmers did not receive a return to cover the extra costs involved, they would switch to producing milk for manufacturing. The spokesperson also noted that the number of farmers supplying milk all year round had declined significantly and warned that while consumers might welcome price cuts, they risked the long-term sustainability of local fresh milk producers.
