KEY POINTS:
Record pay-outs for milk solids and the fact the global supply of milk and its by-products cannot keep up with demand have resulted in soaring prices for these commodities.
In a survey undertaken in Masterton, Wairarapa shoppers were united in their disbelief at the prices and the impact at the check-out of buying what was once regarded as staples, but are now being reclassified by housewives as luxuries.
Prices fluctuate from store to store, and specials on some lines make it impossible to pin-point an exact price for most lines but a survey yesterday showed most shoppers could expect to pay around $14 to $15 a kilo for a brand name cheese, almost $5 for butter and around $2.40 for a litre of milk.
Carterton mother Catherine Wilkinson, who was shopping in Masterton on Friday, with her two-year-old son Angus said she had restricted her dairy product buying this week to milk, paying $4.38 for a two-litre bottle.
"I only buy cheese now when the big blocks come on special.
"I have to buy butter now and again as I do baking, and it hurts a bit."
Mrs Wilkinson said her understanding of the high price for the " chain reaction" that started with fertilizer cost increases and the flow on effects of Fonterra's record pay-out to farmers.
Retired Masterton couple Janet and Jeff Dimock said they hadn't purchased cheese, butter or milk on their Friday order.
Mrs Dimock said prices had gone " over the top"
"We do buy small amounts of cheese and we buy milk because you kind of have to have milk."
Similar comments were made by Alan Lyster, also retired.
Mr Lyster said at present day prices he can't afford to buy cheese but " milk is an essential."
" I don't buy butter, I buy margarine instead and even that is getting dearer and dearer."
Rachael Cato, of Masterton, said she had bought a 200g block of cheese.
"Normally I would buy a kilo but the price of the type of cheese I buy has leapt from $7 or $8 a kilo to over $13 and the price of branded milk has suddenly leapt too."
Mrs Cato said she, like others, monitors her buying of dairy products in line with prices from day-to-day.
Wairarapa people are not the only ones' to be cheesed off over the price of dairy products.
Rumblings of a boycott on cheese and butter have emerged from Auckland and Wellington with disgruntled shoppers testing the waters to determine whether a nationwide move could be made to dry up sales in an effort to force the prices down.
Dairy industry spokesmen have been warning for some time that the worldwide shortage of protein, especially evident in Asian countries, is creating greater and greater demand for dairy products and seems likely to keep world prices high.
- WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE
