It’s official. Dairy farmers have had a gutsful of being made a public scapegoat over milk prices, and now they’re openly pointing the finger at retailers.

Fonterra Shareholders Council chairman Simon Couper told Country 99TV its time the public started connecting the dots on the issue.

He says it out in the open how much Fonterra’s dairy farmers get paid for their milk, that’s 66 cents a litre – and that’s simply what its worth on the international market.

Mr Couper says while he doesn’t know the retailers’ cost structures, its time they explained their margins to Kiwis.

“This information I’m talking about is public knowledge, it’s in the public domain but nobody seems to be connecting the dots. And on behalf of farmers, farmers are actually tired of bringing in New Zealand’s income then being beaten up for it at home.”

Mr Couper said farmers said farmers should be able to get as much as they can for their product, like any New Zealand business, and warned against any move to regulate wholesale milk.

“I think the principle is that we sell on the wholesale – we get the milk price. Everybody knows what the milk price is. Now if there’s any sort talk of regulation at the wholesale level farmers would be better off to export their product abroad.”

This week Agriculture Minister David Carter told Country 99TV that the government’s newly announced Select Committee Inquiry into milk prices would be focused on the retail sector.

“The Commerce Commission decision last week actually raises as many questions as it answers. So the government is quite supportive now of a Select Committee inquiry to try and ascertain whether the pricing to New Zealanders is fair and reasonable. And I personally believe that the Select Committee wants to look very carefully at the retail space in trying to find the answers.”