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Plant Milk Is Better For Us and the Climate. So Why Do We Subsidize Dairy?
(www.motherjones.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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To them, in bulk. Making your own oat milk is about an 80% savings over retail cost (about $0.50-$1/gallon), about the same as the money saved making your own yogurt.
This isn't about rich people getting richer specifically on plant-based milks. There's just several levels of markups. Oat Milk company passes on a markup on the oats they purchase, then they pass another markup to the wholesaler. Then the wholesaler passes a markup to the retailer. Than the retailer passes a markup that averages around 30% but generally goes from 15% to 75%, usually larger markups for products that sell slower to justify their investment in them.
This is arguably why capitalism is failing us, but nothing is unique about it with Oat Milk. Right now, milk cost of production is high (enough that farmers are losing money), but that's temporary and wholesalers have the leverage to pay prices that are below cost (which is why farmers are losing money). Then, there's one fewer step in markups.
So let's say your 20c figure is right (it's not. Oat prices are fairly high right now). They're paying more like 30-40c for the ingredients, then they sell it to wholesalers for over $1/gal (which is arguably justified, which is already in range of the $1.50/gal farm milk costs hit. Then, yes, wholesalers and retailers each mark oat milk up a bit higher because it moves slower.
First: The 20ct figure is quite on the spot, actually, your recipe uses far more oat than the industry uses, and the 20ct figure even includes vegetable oil (to make ich more creamy) and chemicals (to bind fat and water based ingredients). On the other hand, I wonder where you $1/gal comes from - that would be dirt cheap in comparison to the prices I see in the supermarket.
Fair enough, though I cannot seem to find solid figures anywhere. Obviously it's cheaper to make than almond milk, and they retail around the same... But I still dug into number using the $0.20 figure.
That came from the cost per gallon of oat milk being paid by the wholesalers to the manufacturers. Often, supermarkets and other retailers do not purchase directly from manufacturer, but from a wholesaler or distributor. Note also the $1.50 figure farmers are paid by wholesalers. I live in a region with dairy farms and we're paying 3-4x that number by the time it hits the grocery store register.