Lack of cow's milk is affecting the high increase in the price of cheese. For a few days now, the price of cow's cheese has increased by 15% in grocery stores compared to a few days ago. 

The price of cow's cheese from 670 ALL per kg has reached 770 ALL per kg. The price of cow's cheese has increased several times in a row this year. At the beginning of this year, the price was 550 ALL per kg (40% increase compared to last year). For 2021, cow's cheese was sold for 440 ALL per kg. 

Milk processing factories claimed that the price increase is due to the lack of milk and the high demand for this product, mainly in the tourism season. Due to the lack of milk, the main factories in the country were unable to store dairy products this spring. 

According to INSTAT data, in 2021 the accumulated amount of cow's milk decreased by 7.4% compared to 2020, while the accumulated amount of sheep's and goat's milk increased by 26.3% and 8%, respectively. 

While imports and imports of milk for 2021 appear with an increase of about 43% more than 2020. 56% of the total milk abroad is taken up by imports from Italy, 16% of milk comes from Serbia, 14% from Bosnia-Herzegovina and the rest from Kosovo, Macedonia and other European countries. For 2021, the highest increase in milk imports was from Serbia, 71% more than in 2020. 

The head of one of the largest milk processing companies, Saimir Begaj, told "Monitor" earlier that their warehouses are empty, while the daily production does not meet the high market demand. According to him, the contraction of cow's milk production has been influenced by the high cost of nutrients, making animal husbandry unprofitable. 

"Many small farmers who raise 3 or 4 cows are emigrating, as they cannot afford the high cost of keeping animals. Large farms are facing high costs as almost all livestock feed is imported. For this reason, this year too, there is a decrease in the production of cow's milk, while for goat and sheep milk, shortages are less. During the spring season, milk processing factories could not store dairy products, as there is a lack of domestic production". 

The price of milk from the farmer has forced companies to raise the prices of dairy products several times for this year. From August 1, the "Erzeni" company applied the latest price increase. Regarding the price of cow's cheese, its representatives contacted by "Monitor" said that they currently do not sell it as a product, as they are having difficulty finding cow's milk not only within the country, but also abroad, while in the spring the product could not be stored. 

The price of milk sold by the farmer this year has increased 40% this year, as a wave of increases has occurred for all raw materials since electricity whose price has tripled, packaging products and other costs that came from the change in taxation. 

The situation is similar in neighboring countries for the lack of milk. Local factories claim that they are not able to find milk even in Italy, Hungary and Romania, as the farms of these countries warn of a decrease of up to 50% in the number of cows due to the high cost of keeping them. 

(Source: Monitor)