Supermarkets across Ireland are likely to cut the cost of milk and butter this week, one of the country’s leading consumer journalists has predicted. 

Yesterday, Lidl announced it was slashing the cost of a  two litre carton of milk from €2.35 to €2.2.5. The cost of a pound block of Irish Creamery Butter will also drop €3.39 to €2.99. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Irish Times Pricewatch Editor Conor Pope said the announcement “came kind of out of the blue”. 

“All of the talk in the last three or four weeks has been about the rising cost of groceries in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East,” he said. 

“So, for Lidl to announce a 10 cent cut in the price of its two litre [carton] of milk and a 40 cent cut in the price of a pound of its own brand butter comes as a surprise.

“What's inevitably going to happen over the next 10, 12, 14 hours, if it hasn't already happened, is all of the other retailers will follow suit.” 

Butter and knife in a butter dish. Picture by: Alamy.com.

However, the decision is unlikely to impact just Lidl customers. 

In the cutthroat world of Irish supermarkets, competitive prices are key selling points. 

“Aldi, Tesco and Super Value and Dunnes, they could never countenance a situation where Lidl's own brand milk was 10 cent cheaper than theirs,” he said. 

“Even though it's only 10 cents, it would give one of the retailers the opportunity to lord it over all of the other retailers.

“So by tomorrow, all of the retailers will have cut the price of their own brand milk and that they'll have cut the price of their own brand butter.” 

While a cut of 10 cents and 40 cents might seem small, Mr Pope noted that small reductions add up to notable savings over the course of a year. 

“If you were to take a typical family who are spending, who are using six litres of milk a week and maybe one pound of butter, the total impact of these two cuts on your annual shopping will be around €80,” he explained. 

“Now €80 isn't a huge amount of money, but it's better than nothing.” 

However, Mr Pope cautioned that given the situation in the Middle East, it “might well be an outlier”. 

“I think it's really important not to look too far into the future here,” he said. 

“Because as you know, this is an incredibly volatile situation.

“And we have absolutely no idea where we're going to be this time next week, never mind this time next year.”

Main image: A milk aisle. Picture by: Alamy.com.