Switzerland reported the unique situation in its milk industry, butter shortage hit the country of cheese “for the first time in years”. Apparently, the reason for such unexpected shortage is a surge in cheese production which left little milk at the table for butter producers.
No butter means no cheese, said the Swiss cheesemakers, commenting on the recent shortage of the raw. To make sure Swiss bread doesn’t go unbuttered, the Alpine nation country is going temporarily change laws to bring butter across the border.
Allowing import butter is the forced decision for Switzerland, confirmed the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture (FOA). Unfortunately, the country’s butter stores were running dangerously low, with only 2,300 tonnes in reserve – although this amount is up from a low of 1,500 tonnes earlier in Spring.
This week’s press release said that “for the first time in years, there is an insufficient supply of Swiss butter for the (local) market.”
“A shortage of butter supply, especially at the end of the year, must be prevented,” the FOA document reads.
Swiss milk industry urges to allow import quotas for butter
Unlike other supply shortages experienced across the country in recent months, the lack of butter isn’t due only to the coronavirus – although plenty of lockdown-inspired baking is unlikely to help.
Instead, higher cheese production has meant that less milk fat has been available to produce butter in recent months.
The Swiss government was responding to an application from the Swiss milk industry, asking that import quotas be temporarily relaxed to allow more butter across the border.
An additional 1,000 tonnes will now be allowed across the border, around 2.3 percent of the total sold in Switzerland each year. In fact, the exemption will be granted for 2020 only.
Milk producers make more money from cheese production than from butter, meaning that when butter’s turn comes around, the pail is dry (or at least a little too empty).
