Faced with the rumors that have been circulating about the increase in milk in the country, a version that spoke of an increase that could be 26% on the liquidation of raw milk prices) the executive president of the National Association of Milk Producers, Analc, Felipe Pinilla, clarified on Saturday March 4 that the prices of this product will not rise, giving consumers a part of peace of mind.
In a first measure, President Pinilla began by explaining the rules of the game that the sector manages in relation to milk prices:
“The dairy sector in Colombia has some rules of the game that come from 2012 and what they are looking for is that our producers have a minimum price, a minimum price range, with which they will sell their milk, which allows them to cover production costs and that rewards them for the quality of the milk they produce. In this sense, there are incentives to produce very good quality milk. That is the rule that we have”, he began by explaining to Caracol Radio, in the Caracol Al Campo program, President Pinilla.
But this week, he continued, the Ministry of Agriculture said that the price per gram of protein fat and total solids in milk would be updated, which means that this minimum price range necessarily grows for the milk producer.
“Here comes the question: are prices going to go up? What impact will that have? And the answer to that is that this increase already occurred at the end of the year 2022. Seeing the news from the Ministry of Agriculture, doing the calculations and seeing that our country is diverse, both in quantity and quality of milk production by region , this minimum price could be oscillating in low quality milk around $1,500-$1,600 pesos and in very good quality milk, close to $1,800 pesos (with an average around $1,740 pesos”, the president advanced in his explanation to Caracol Radio pinilla
The decision made by the National Dairy Council based on the rules of the game, and compared with the prices we are seeing today, shows a difference “because today we are seeing prices in different regions above $2,000 pesos and in others very above that value.
“So what we see here is that the total price that will continue to be paid to the producer will be, as we see it today, somewhat above $2,000. Now, if there were to be a season of sharp drop in producer prices, that range that he mentioned should not drop, he specified in this regard.
And, finally, he explained that this measure, which has generated confusion but which must be clarified as soon as possible, “what it represents is insurance for this situation, especially for the small producer who is the one who suffers the most when prices that pay you go with a downward trend. It is there where the update is generated and in that sense, seeing how prices are today, the inflationary pressure should not be transmitted to the consumer. What you have to do is continue with the rules of the game and with the times that those rules have set us. So there should not be an impact in that sense towards the consumer”, concluded the executive president of Analac. with Infobae