Federated Farmers has reiterated its belief that a parliamentary select committee inquiry into milk prices is premature.
The rural lobby organisation's dairy chairman Willy Leferink appeared before the commerce select committee in Wellington yesterday.
The inquiry was too early, given the work being undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Economic Development and Treasury, Mr Leferink said.
In June, those three Government ministries announced they had launched a separate inquiry into prices.
"The fact is [they] are doing work that could vitally inform any future select committee. This work was started some months before the commerce select committee decided to look into milk and will continue well after this committee reports," Mr Leferink said.
Federated Farmers recommended the inquiry find New Zealanders were not paying too much for milk relative to other countries and that the market was operating effectively.
There was a huge amount of interest in the price of milk, which had come from members of the public concerned about the retail price of milk. It also came from independent processors concerned about the price they had to pay for raw milk, he said.
However, Federated Farmers' submission showed that milk was not "some smoking gun".
"Despite public concern, the retail price of milk has not increased by more than many other foods, many non-food items in the consumer price index.
"The Commerce Commission has also considered this question and found that such an inquiry was not warranted," he said.
In March, the commission began investigations into whether it should make a formal inquiry into the price of milk and it announced last month that it had decided against it.
