BC residents will be digging a little deeper into their pockets to bring home some milk.
Earlier this week, the Canadian Dairy Commission says the farm-gate price of milk will go up another 2.5 percent as of September 1st – this follows an 8.4% hike on February 1st.
Sarah Sache is the Vice-Chair of the BC Dairy Association who understands the frustration of residents when it comes to rising prices at the grocery store.
“We are consumers ourselves so we understand the feeling when you walk into the grocery store right now but for us to keep our businesses operating right now we really need this increase in farm gate price to continue operating our businesses.”
Sache adds feed, energy, and fertilizer costs have gone up 22 percent, 55 percent, and 45 percent respectively since August 2021, which is making life more expensive for those in the agricultural sector.
“Diesel fuel is used in our tractors on the farm. Fertilizer that is used to grow our crops is up exponentially and the cost of feed has increased due to the geopolitical situation.”
The only major inconvenience northern residents would face is transportation costs when moving grain and feed.
“I think a lot of the processing at this point in time is quite centralized so milk from that area would be travelling in many cases to the Lower Mainland for processing so the transportation costs are significant. And again, with the moving of grains and feed and securing hay, there is just less hay and feed in the market right now.”
BC’s dairy industry contributes 1.2-billion dollars to the provincial economy each year.