Five myths about the milk 'price war' going on in Ireland's supermarkets

This price war has nothing to do with helping consumers make ends meet, but about deflecting attention away from supermarkets. Every time there’s a focus on grocery prices being in 'rip-off' territory, there’s a pretend price war, writes Eoin McGettigan

Milk is chosen for a price war as it immediately garners the attention of the media and creates what is, in effect, free advertising.

Recently, the major Irish supermarkets started a “price war”, using milk as the battleground. The first shots of the war, a drop of 6c a litre. On average, this is worth about €8 a year per person, if the drop lasts a year. 

Milk is important in Ireland. We are in the top five per capita consumers of liquid milk. Our dairy farmers also produce a lot of milk, more than 10 times as much as we drink. This is turned into butter, cheese and protein powder, mainly for export. However, this is a fake price war. What follows are five myths about the “milk wars”