Minister of Agriculture Virginija Baltraitiene said that the Competition Council was applied for to explain the current situation. Milk purchase prices have been reducing since last August while dairy products have not become any cheaper.
The Agriculture Ministry has announced that milk processing enterprises started to reduce milk purchase prices again in January-February, even though the situation in the global market has stabilised. The ministry suspects that the level of milk purchase prices in Lithuania is affected by other factors which are not directly related to dairy product sale prices. Milk processing companies were sent official letters that should be answered by 13 February.
The analysis of the dairy produce market and information provided by the Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics show that prices of dairy products are no longer falling in the global market. Whereas in Lithuania trading in dairy products is stable and retail prices of dairy products have decreased insignificantly.
Moreover, prices of production resources such as fuel and other energy resources have recently decreased and should have had an effect on the cost of dairy products as well as milk purchase prices.
