Rising milk prices upping costs for Manitoba businesses

The wallets of Canadians continue to stretch as the price of milk has gone up for the second time in 2022.

The first hike took effect on February 1 with an increase of 6 cents per litre, or 8.4 per cent. A second increase September 1 saw milk prices increase an additional 2 cents per litre, or 2.5 per cent.

 “During the pandemic, I didn’t raise my prices at all,” says Farhan Ahmed, co-owner of Little Italy pizzeria in Brandon. “The costs kept going up, so last year was really not a good year for us.”

The rising food costs, particularly for dairy, have led him to charge more for his pizzas.

“Our main product that we use is cheese, so there’s no way to escape that. You just have to take what you get,” Ahmed says. “Two years ago they were $8 or $9 per kg, but now sometimes it’s going for $16 or $17 per kg, so it’s effectively doubled.”

Increases have been felt on the province’s farmers as well.

“Since last year, the dairy cattle feed costs have gone up by over 22 per cent,” says David Weins, chairperson of the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba. “Costs for fuel and energy and so on have gone up by over 82 per cent, and fertilizers which we use for cropping has gone up by 55 per cent.”

For some consumers, this, coupled with other rising costs fuelled by inflation, has them worrying about making ends meet.

“I notice that meat and everything like that is pretty costly, and budgeting for that is more of a stressor, I’d say,” says Jennifer Clyne, a parent with young children. “So you’d certainly have to budget that and make sure that you have everything you need.”

Ahmed hopes to see prices drop to more reasonable levels soon, and see his business bring more customers in the door.

“It’s hard for the people to pay now because everything is going up,” he says. “It will take time to get back to where we were.”