THE COST of Pine Hill Dairy milk products will increase from Thursday.
The hikes range from nine per cent on fresh milk to 19 per cent on reconstituted milks.
Managing director and chief executive officer of Banks Holdings, Richard Cozier, explained the price increases yesterday, saying they were necessary as the cost of production continued to rise and the company could no longer absorb these hikes.
“Our inputs like packaging, milk powders, electricity and every aspect of our production keep rising,” said Cozier in a telephone interview with the NATION.
“Fuel and energy, in particular, are on a constant high. This morning oil is trending to US$100 and it doesn’t show any signs it will reduce soon,” he added.
Cozier said commodity prices, too, continued to be volatile on the world market, and these fluctuations were making it difficult to keep production costs down.
Quizzed on whether this milk price hike could be the beginning of other increases for other Banks-produced products, Cozier said he could neither say “yea or nay” to that.
Looking towards Christmas sales, he said traditionally people spent at this time and he was hoping for the same this year, but recognized that they would have less disposal income than in previous years because of increases in value added tax, the taxing of travel and entertainment allowances and high energy costs. (SP)
