Korean milk providers start to raise prices

South Korea’s major milk and dairy product providers are set to raise retail prices of their products next week.

Namyang Dairy Products said Friday the company will increase retail prices of commercial milk products by an average 4.9 percent from Oct. 14.

The firm said the prices of fermented and processed milk products will be risen 0.3 percent and 1.6 percent on average, respectively.

For example, two packs of Delicious MilkGT, Namyang’s best-selling product, will be priced at 4,900 won ($4.13), up from 4,700 won.

“It is inevitable that we hike the prices due to increased production costs, including the raw milk price that recently rose by 21 won per liter,” Namyang said in a press release.

Binggrae also said it had decided to raise the prices of Banana Flavored Milk and Yoplait Original by 7.1 percent and 6.4 percent starting from mid-October.

Seoul Milk on Friday was the first to push for the price hikes.

The company increased the prices of its products by 5.4 percent on average for the first time in three years.

(song@heraldcorp.com)