Anonymous phone threat follows Woolworths' milk bungle that spooked an industry

The man was calling from a private number and would not say who he was representing but his "threatening" call certainly backfired because Ms Jones is not one to be intimidated.

She'd written a Facebook post celebrating shoppers flocking to her boutique milk brand despite Woolworths supermarkets across the state have been selling milk for as little as 49 cents for two litres.

The discounts had sparked industry fears supermarkets were preparing to drop prices but were in fact the result of a massive bungle.

"Due to significant fluctuations in customer demand, it's been much harder to accurately forecast our milk orders in recent weeks," a Woolworths spokesperson said.

"Faced with excess stock in Victoria after Easter, we have temporarily reduced the price of some milk lines - including Woolworths Milk - in some stores to clear it."

Ms Jones said there was a silver lining for the Gippsland Jersey brand, which sold well at $4.70 for 2 litres - almost 10 times the price of the Woolworths' branded milk discounted to just 49c per 2L bottle.

"This week, with milk in the same fridge so cheap, it's so encouraging for an independent Australian farmer-owned milk brand for the consumer to choose our brand," she said.

"Our brand has been banging on about the need to pay a fair price and that the cheap milk is such a disrespect to farmers.

"I guess we were heartened to see such a flood of social media posts of consumers seeing that."

The coronavirus crisis had brought home the value of locally-produced food for many consumers.

"There's been an awakening in Australia that maybe we do need to think about where our food comes from," Ms Jones said.

"There's cheap food and then there's 'story food' and our brand has a story.

"We're trying to be a voice within the dairy industry to fly that flag and explain why dairy farmers deserve to be paid a better price.

"I'm on a mission to make farmers famous."

Ms Jones had received about 20 messages from consumers around Victoria "disgusted" by the cheap milk.

She said it was too early to tell how the cheap milk had affected Gippsland Jersey sales figures but she was buoyed by customer photos of empty shelves.

Although competing brands could have suffered losses during the discounting, Woolworths said it would entirely foot the cost of the bungle.

"The Woolworths drought levy continues to be paid out in full each month and there is no impact on farmgate prices from this temporary adjustment," a spokesperson said.

"We have no plans to change our standard retail price on Woolworths Milk at this time."

Chief executive of dairy lobby group Farmer Power Garry Kerr said farmers were pleased to learn that the discounts were only temporary.

He said the dairy industry was concerned about the impact of cheap milk and urged supermarkets to make the reasons for discounts clear to shoppers.

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