Milk is the latest casualty of price hikes, with Malta’s main producer, Benna, yesterday announcing various price increases on its range of milk products that come into force tomorrow.

Benna’s owners, Malta Dairy Products, said this was being done because of the higher prices of cereals and consequently, animal feed, but the new prices would not affect yoghurts, ricotta, creams, mozzarella and ġbejniet.

The most popular product, the litre milk carton, will now cost 76c – 4c more than before, while the 500ml version will cost 3c more.

The price of whole milk has been raised by 1c and “milk drinks” by 5c, costing 60c.

Interestingly, one milk product, the 500ml skimmed milk carton, has become 1c cheaper, while its litre counterpart was raised by 2c.

Malta Dairy Products said the cost of buying raw milk had risen by seven per cent since October, and this was exacerbated by increased production costs which could no longer be absorbed without substantial losses to the company.

The increases follow the recent price hikes in fuel, gas and bread in September.

The last increase in milk prices was in April 2008, when the price of a one-litre milk carton went up by seven cents to 72c.

The Benna producers had attributed this to higher global prices of oil and the raw materials needed for animal feed.