josh james / CC

Your milk prices are going up on September 1st.

Chair of the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick Wietze Dykstra says their costs have ballooned in the first six months of this year, “Our feed, fuel and fertilizer have seen double-digit increases and we have no choice but to raise our prices to the consumer.”

Dykstra says, “For us at the farm gate, it’s 2.5 percent. So, the processors will also get some more money and so will the retailers. So, for the consumer is going to be more than 2.5 percent.”

This will be the second price hike in 2022. The first increase was on February 1st, 2022.

“Dairy farmers are only allowed to raise prices once a year. However, due to these steep cost increases, we have a mechanism in place that we can ask for a mid-year increase, which is what we’re doing right now. We’ve done this once or twice before, but it is out of the norm, but I would say that this year has been out of the norm as most people will know,” Dykstra says.

An application for the increase was submitted to the Canadian Dairy Commission in June.

Dykstra adds he doesn’t like to have to charge more for milk, because he is a consumer too, “When I go shop for groceries, I notice how much prices are going up. Our dollar isn’t going as far as it used to go, So we are very much aware of that, but we just don’t have any choice.”