Milk prices hiked en masse

Namyang Dairy Products will increase natural milk products. Starting with Seoul Milk, major dairy food companies are raising prices en masse. The move is feared to spark ‘domino price hikes’ for related products including bread and cheese.

Namyang said Friday it is raising the price of its natural milk products by 4.9 percent on average in tune with price hikes of fresh farm milk. The hike will likely bring the price of Namyang’s 1-liter Delicious GT Milk from the low 2,500-won (2.11 U.S. dollars) level to the mid 2,600-won (2.19 dollars) level. However, the dairy company said it has minimized price hikes for fermented milk and processed milk products within 0.3 percent and 1.6 percent on average, respectively, to help ease burden on consumers.

Maeil Dairy, which has yet to officially announce a plan on its price hikes, is reportedly planning to raise prices by around 5 percent as well. Mail plans to announce the extent of its price hikes as early as next week. The dairy industry says price hikes are inevitable due to increased costs of fresh farm milk. Dairy companies are procuring unprocessed fresh farm milk at 947 won (0.8 dollars) per liter, up 21 won (2.3 percent) from 926 won (0.79 dollars), since August this year.

There is also mounting inflationary pressure on the price of processed foodstuffs including ramen noodles and beverages. According to sources in the insurance industry, the council of insured automobile maintenance and repair services comprising representatives from property insurance companies, automobile repair shops and the public sector decided to raise the cost of insured auto repairs by 4.5 percent. This can result in a hike of insurance premiums by the 1 percent level. The hiked prices for insured auto repairs will take effect in December. It is the first time in three years that the costs for insured auto repairs have been raised.


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