Popular yogurt drink brand to raise prices for first time in over a decade
Prices of the popular yogurt drink brand “Yakult” will rise for the first time in more than a decade next month due to higher costs of ingredients and production, the company that produces the brand said on Friday.
The price will rise by one baht per bottle on March 1, Yakult Thailand Co Ltd said.
It has not raised prices since March 2012, but the costs of ingredients and manufacturing have crept up over the past decade, the company said.
From next month, a bottle of original flavor Yakult will cost eight baht instead of seven baht, while the cost of Yakult Lite will rise to nine baht per bottle from eight baht.
Yakult only sells its brand in 80 millilitre bottles, saying these contain an optimal amount of lactobacillus bacteria to improve the digestive system.
In December last year, the Cabinet approved a price hike for dairy products under the government’s school-milk project to reflect current production costs. The move raised the reference price for bagged pasteurised milk from 6.58 baht to 6.89 baht apiece, and the price of boxed UHT milk from 7.82 baht to 8.13 baht apiece.
To ease the burden on schools with large numbers of students – primarily those in Bangkok and Pattaya – the Cabinet also allowed agencies supervising schools to request a subsidy from the Budget Bureau.
