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2 L · GST-free · checked 24 Oct 2026

Full cream milk.

Shelf price $3.55 at Coles (Coles brand, new price after a rise from $3.20, as reported by Tasmanian Country. A September 2026 trade report says supermarket private-label milk was later cut by 7 to 10 cents a litre, but it doesn't name the chains.), 1 May 2026.

Where $3.55 goes

The farmer or grower$1.18–$1.60 · 33–45%
2026-27 opening farmgate prices of $7.65 (United Dairy Company minimum) to $10.38 (Coles direct supply) per kg milk solids × 0.077 kg milk solids per litre (Dairy Australia In Focus 2025: 10,000 L of milk holds 425 kg fat + 345 kg protein = 770 kg) × 2 L = $1.18 to $1.60. Cross-check: ABARES' September 2026 forecast national average of 76.1 c/L ($9.8/kg milk solids) × 2 L = $1.52. Opening prices usually rise during the season. Queensland and NSW drinking-milk farms are paid more than these mostly southern offers: in 2024-25 Queensland averaged 91.6 c/L ($1.83 per 2 L), and no 2026-27 northern figure is published. Retail full cream milk is standardised to 3.4–3.6% fat against about 4.25% in farm milk, so this slightly overstates the solids in a 2 L bottle. Source
Processing and packingnot published
Processors (Saputo, Lactalis, Bega and others) don't publish what it costs to pasteurise, standardise and bottle a litre, or what they charge supermarkets under private-label contracts.
Freight and wholesalenot published
No processor or retailer publishes the cost per litre of chilled tanker pick-up from farms or truck delivery to distribution centres and stores.
Left for the supermarket, plus processing and packing and freight and wholesale$1.95–$2.37 · 55–67%
What's left once the published stages are paid. It isn't all profit: it also pays the supermarket's wages, rent, power and its own freight to stores, and the stages nobody publishes. Across the whole business, Woolworths kept $5.50 and Coles $5.70 of every $100 as profit before interest and tax in FY26.

Worth knowing

  • Private label and brand are very different prices. Across Australian supermarkets in the year to 13 July 2025, private-label milk averaged $1.59 a litre and branded milk $2.97 a litre (Dairy Australia, from NielsenIQ household panel data). Private label was about 63% of the litres sold. The $1-a-litre own-brand milk that Coles started in 2011 was dropped by the big chains in 2019, according to news reports at the time.
  • What a farmer is paid depends on the region and the processor. In 2024-25 the state average ran from 68.8 c/L in Victoria to 91.6 c/L in Queensland, where more milk goes to drinking rather than cheese and powder.
  • The farmer figure is the only stage that is published. The rest of the shelf price covers processing, bottles, freight, the supermarket's costs and everyone's margin, and nobody breaks that down per bottle.

Shelf prices we have

  • Coles · Coles brand, new price after a rise from $3.20, as reported by Tasmanian Country. A September 2026 trade report says supermarket private-label milk was later cut by 7 to 10 cents a litre, but it doesn't name the chains.$3.55 · 1 May 2026 · source

Paid something different? Add your price.

Sources

  1. Farm Online (Australian Community Media): Dairy processors, Coles, GVC reveal opening milk prices, 1 June 2026 (a report of it) · read 24 Oct 2026
  2. Saputo Dairy Australia: Opening milk price for 2026-27, 1 June 2026 · read 24 Oct 2026
  3. ABARES, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: Agricultural Commodities Report: September quarter 2026 (Dairy), 1 Sept 2026 · read 24 Oct 2026
  4. Dairy Australia: In Focus 2025: The Australian Dairy Industry · read 24 Oct 2026
  5. Tasmanian Country: Supermarket milk prices surge, 1 May 2026 (a report of it) · read 24 Oct 2026
  6. Australian Taxation Office: GST-free food · read 24 Oct 2026

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