Butter shortage hits Scandinavia

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Norway faced a butter shortage in December that threatened production of some favourite traditional Christmas foods. Associated Press reports say the crisis started in the summer with heavy rains that affected the quality of grazing for cows, depressing milk production. Another factor is unusually high fall demand because of fashionable low carbohydrate, full-fat diets, a craze that has swept Europe. Sales soared by 20 per cent in October and 30 per cent in November.

A Russian citizen was detained for trying to smuggle about 200 pounds of butter into Norway from Germany. In the meantime, according to CNN, one seller on a Norwegian auction website was offering half a kilogram of butter for about 30 times the normal price.

At the Dairy Farmers of Ontario annual general meeting in January, chairman Bill Emmott said this type of shortage situation would never happen under Canada's supply management scheme, where production is matched to demand. BF