07/10/2026
🇿🇦🥛 A MESSAGE TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONSUMER
Written by Urban Pratt and originally shared on the page Melkboere Suid-Afrika.
I came across this message and believe it deserves to be shared with a wider audience. I have translated it into English for our English-speaking farmers, consumers and followers.
Urban Pratt writes:
I am not writing this as a marketer or an economist.
I am writing this as a dairy farmer.
Every day, we get up and do what needs to be done. The cows have to be milked, regardless of whether it is raining, storming, a Sunday or a public holiday.
But consider the reality facing the South African dairy farmer today:
• Diesel is getting more expensive.
• Eskom electricity costs are increasing.
• Wages are increasing.
• Feed and other agricultural inputs are becoming more expensive.
• Machinery, maintenance and repairs continue to cost more.
And while our production costs continue to rise, the price the farmer receives for milk is going down.
Our winter premium of approximately 20 cents per litre has disappeared.
According to the prices communicated to us, Lactalis reduced the milk price by 20 cents per litre last month, and from 1 November, a further reduction of 30 cents per litre will be implemented.
For a dairy farmer, these are not simply a few cents.
They can be the difference between a farming operation that remains sustainable and one that is pushed further and further under financial pressure.
And yet the consumer walks into the supermarket and sees the price of milk continuing to rise.
So we ask a very simple question:
If the farmer is receiving less for the milk, why is the consumer still paying more?
The dairy farmer does not determine the retail price.
The dairy farmer does not determine the profit margins of large processors.
But the dairy farmer carries the risk.
We cannot simply “switch off” our cows when prices fall.
The cows still have to be fed.
We still have to buy diesel.
We still have to pay Eskom.
We still have to pay our workers.
And we still have to milk those cows every single day.
That is why I am asking the South African consumer today:
Look at the brand you are buying.
Lactalis markets dairy products in South Africa under, among others, the Parmalat brand.
If you believe that the current treatment of dairy farmers is unfair, consider choosing an alternative to Parmalat products.
This is not about attacking an individual.
It is about making consumers aware of what happens at the very beginning of the milk value chain — on the farm.
Every rand you spend in a supermarket is a vote for the product you choose.
If we want South Africa to still have a strong, sustainable local dairy industry in 10 or 20 years’ time, then the farmer producing that milk must also be able to earn a sustainable living.
🥛🇿🇦 STAND WITH THE SOUTH AFRICAN DAIRY FARMER.
Behind every litre of milk is a farmer, a family, employees, animals that need to be cared for, and a farming operation that has to survive.
Please share this message so that more South Africans can understand what is really happening at the beginning of the milk value chain.
