Allegations of dairy price fixing are still, well, milky. It’s been almost two weeks since the Wall Street Journal reported that federal commodity regulators were investigating Dairy Farmers of America for price fixing and manipulation. The farmer-owned dairy cooperative controls about one third of the nation’s milk supply.
Monica Coleman, a spokeswoman for the Dairy Farmers of America, said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is looking into the group’s trading of cheese futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The price of cheese futures can impact milk prices. The Department of Agriculture sets a minimum price of milk that is based in part on a survey of cheese prices that includes futures prices…
The Journal reported that the CFTC is preparing to bring charges against DFA.
“We do not believe we have violated any laws, and we have and will continue to cooperate,” Rick Smith, president and chief executive of the DFA, said in a statement.
The price of milk jumped 13.5 percent in the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but Coleman said the “alleged activity is from 2004 and does not affect milk prices today.”
A spokesman for the CFTC would neither confirm or deny any investigation.
The DFA markets 61.7 billion pounds of milk for more than 19,000 dairy farm members.
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