The Fonterra Shareholders' Council is defending the domestic price of milk which it says reflects high international prices, not a lack of competition in the market place.
The Commerce Commission announced last week that it was looking into whether a milk price inquiry is warranted after receiving complaints about the high retail price of milk.
It will investigate how much competition there is in milk supply, manufacturing and retailing before deciding whether to hold an inquiry.
The Shareholders' Council believes that the milk price debate is being driven by other dairy processors, some of whom have foreign-ownership.
Council chair Simon Couper says most of those processors are not involved in domestic milk supply, but want cheaper access to milk here.
Mr Couper says if the domestic milk price was too high, more companies would have attempted to get involved in the market here rather than exporting all of their milk .
