Queen Marie Antoinette left the world with the phrase "If there is no bread, let them eat brioche," not cakes, by the way, according to the French source. Israeli dairy producers, led by Tnuva, could update it to "If there is no regulated milk, let them drink chocolate milk," amid the severe shortage of regulated milk in the past week.
Just a month ago, we reported here on Walla that due to an electrical fault at a dairy in Rehovot, a shortage of Tnuva’s regulated milk was created. Tnuva controls 80% of the regulated milk sales in the country.
Since the shortage of regulated milk keeps recurring, and the gaps are narrowing, the "Retail Research Institute" led by Dr. Hezi Gur-Mizrachi checked whether the shortage of the relatively cheaper milk during the week from December 19 to December 26 affected the sales of the more expensive unregulated milk, compared to the previous week from December 11 to December 18.
Indeed, sales of Tnuva’s unregulated dairy beverages, including chocolate milk, surged by 37% last week compared to the previous week. Sales of lactose-free milk rose by 40%, and full-fat milk jumped by 100% in sales.
The Tara company, which stopped selling regulated one-liter cartons of milk and instead produces two-liter cartons at regulated prices and holds about 15% of the regulated milk market, saw a 765% increase in sales of two-liter cartons last week compared to the previous week. Sales of the company's lactose-free milk rose by 162%.
It is no secret that Tnuva, the Golan Heights dairies, and Tara, which produce the regulated milk, complain that producing it is not profitable. The Golan Heights dairies even went bankrupt due to heavy losses when producing the regulated milk for Shufersal's private label.
And so, miraculously, every few months, a severe shortage of regulated milk is created, while production of unregulated products like full milk, enriched milk, natural milk, lactose-free milk, and milk sold in plastic bottles is not affected, quite the opposite. This leaves consumers with no choice but to buy the more expensive and profitable dairy products from the dairies.
A source in the dairy market told Walla that not only is there almost no regulated milk on the shelves, but promotions for unregulated milk and its products have been canceled to maximize company profits. Since the regulator, the Agriculture Ministry and the Economy Ministry, cannot force the retail chains to produce regulated milk, just as they cannot force bakeries to produce regulated bread, they can set quotas for importing milk, as was done in the past.
Rami Levy, who previously imported milk from abroad, has had enough of the dry spells imposed on consumers by the dairies. Since the state has not lowered tariffs that would justify importing milk from abroad, his chain decided to sell a private label milk brand produced by "Golan Dairies" at a price of NIS 6, cheaper than Tnuva and Tara’s regulated milk.
Attempts to understand why Tnuva’s regulated milk has been unavailable in retail chains over the past ten days proved fruitless. Tnuva responded: "Tnuva is producing at full capacity, prioritizing regulated products." The company refused to address the increase in sales of unregulated products amid the shortage.