Bad news for your pocket:
the representatives of the dairies and the dairy farmers announced in the economic committee that the prices of the dairy products under supervision will increase in May by 15-16 percent.
The price index for milk, cheese and eggs shows that Israel is 78% more expensive than the OECD countries for these products.
The Knesset's Economic Committee, chaired by MK David Bitan, today continued its series of discussions on the ongoing trend of rising food prices, the meeting was devoted to dealing with the dairy industry. During the discussion, the representatives of the major dairies claimed that a 16-15% increase in the prices of dairy products is expected in May In response to this, Chairman Bitan said that he convened the meeting to bring about a price reduction and now we need to find ways to stop the increase in prices.
The CEO of the Dairy Council, Itzik Schneider, said that the dairy industry employs 15,000 workers in 100 dairies and 771 dairy farms scattered all over the country. He added that since 2013 the price has not changed and some products have even been reduced. He referred to the price of butter and said that As soon as they opened for free import, they thought the price would drop, but in reality the public pays 40% more for the butter and the move hurt the consumer.
"Milk production in Israel - one of the highest in the world", increase in milk prices (for illustration), photo: Reuters
MK Michael Biton said that maintaining cattle breeding in Israel is a national goal and should be strengthened. "Those who think that the industry's solutions are imports are killing this industry.
If we lower the VAT from 17% to 12%, as is being prepared, all the reduction will go directly to the consumer. We need to understand that the dairy farmers are 60-70 year old farmers and not tycoons, we need to understand where the failures are and why the citizen paid more for the butter last year."
The Secretary General of the Israel Agricultural Association, Avshalom Willan, added that all over the world milk is a planned product and 95% of the produce is sold in the country where it is produced. According to him, the large chains have power that they do not have in any country in the world and they decide on the price and dictate it to the farmer.
Calculate each shlok, soon the prices of milk products will rise (for illustration), photo: Yehoshua Yosef
During the discussion, the representatives of the dairy farmers and the large dairies claimed that after the price of raw milk rose at the beginning of the year, a 15-16 percent increase in the prices of supervised dairy products is expected soon.
Chairman Bitan addressed this and said that he convened the discussion to find a way to lower the price, and now he sees that the increase must first be stopped. He asked for a reference from the finance representative, Gilad Katsav, who replied: "We are aware of the expected increase in May, the numbers are not accurate.
We have taken steps such as canceling customs duties on mozzarella and chloumi and they will take further steps."
Deputy Director of the Ministry of Agriculture Levy added that the dairy farmers agreed to reduce the price by 2.25 shekels from the target price for a year, and this will soon be submitted to the committee for approval. Levy also said that the solution to the upcoming increase could be a loan from the state budget until the prices of inputs, which rose as a result of the war in Ukraine, come down. The representative of the Ministry of Economy Tel. He added: "We will take steps that will also allow the small importers to participate in the competition."
Chairman Bitan concluded the discussion by saying that local agriculture should be protected and that we see how to help the consumer. He asked all government representatives to act to ensure that there will be no price increase in May, or to subsidize it for the consumer until the cost of inputs allows the price of raw milk to be lowered. In addition, he said that he is not Sees a price reduction without direct support for farmers, and called not to take the prices of dairy products out of control for fear that this would further increase prices.
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