WA’s major dairy processor Brownes has echoed sentiments of east coast manufacturers Bega and SPC that common dairy products could rise by double digits this year.

Australia’s peak retail body warned business input costs are at a tipping point, with consumer inflation expectations at their highest level in almost a decade, according to the latest ANZ consumer survey.

Brownes CEO Natalie Sarich-Dayton (above) said the business was feeling similar inflationary pressures well into the pandemic and before the Russia-Ukraine conflict “supercharged” things.

“We were preparing for it last year, we did foresee that these cost increases were heading our way,” she told Gareth Parker on 6PR Breakfast.

“The company announced a 5c-a-litre increase for its dairy farmers late last year That was the largest ever single increase that Brownes has ever passed on to farmers in WA.

“We led the market, we progressed with this, but sitting here now… these aren’t warnings [from Bega and SPC], they’re happening now.

“I think what’s blown us all away is just the size and the speed of the increases that are starting to flow through that we’re seeing today, that we didn’t see coming.”

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