Norway, where butter costs nearly $500 a pack
Norway is one of the richest countries on earth. It is, if you consider the measure of public policy group The Legatum Institute, the most prosperous nation of all.
Yet all is not well in Norway as the holidays near.
At a time when baking is at a premium, an acute butter shortage is causing a bit of a goofy panic for the dairy product in the Scandinavian nation.
But it’s not just housewives facing line-ups at the supermarket. We’re talking entire families not being able to afford a pack of butter.
According to the Times Live, a rainy summer in Norway is to blame for the shortage, cutting into feed production and therefore dairy output, but so too is the growing popularity of a low-carb, fat-rich diet, which has sent demand soaring.
*Bing: How much does butter cost in Canada?
The butter crisis has gotten so bad in Norway that online sellers have been hawking 500 gram packs for as much as $474.
“Compared to 2010, demand has grown by as much as 30 per cent,” a spokesperson for Tine, Norway’s main dairy company, said.
Certainly, such butter scarcity isn’t your typical commodity shortage in line with, say, the Arab oil embargo of 1973. But similar dearths have happened before.
Earlier this year, for instance, onion prices spiked in India as the vegetable became rare, and a sweeping, global shortage of chocolate is forecast going forward.
Yet for now, amid news that the shortage of butter could last in Norway until the New Year, opportunists are looking to capitalize and make a quick buck.
As near $500 packs of butter fly off shelves, customs officials stopped a Russian at the Norway/Sweden border last Friday with about 200 pounds of butter stashed in his car.
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: Al-man | Dec 12, 2021 1:36:24 PM
There seems to be a lot of problems around the world with crazy shortages of all kinds of commodities. A better shortage in Norway, ok, seems strange to many. It can happen and it is. What I find strange is that 20-30 yrs ago, there wouldn't be many of these problems because people knew how to either make do without or could make the things that were missing or in short supply. Gardens were grown to offset expensive vegetables, cream was churned into butter and the buttermilk used in baking, berries were picked to make a persons jam and jelly, or bread was baked at home. I think the world is getting collectively less able to look after itself and figure out solutions to problems. Most people are forgetting some of the old ways and methods. Many young people can't cook for themselves, shaking a jar of cream into butter would either be magic or witchcraft to some.
Now granted, from reading the article, some of the problem is a little shot of greed being tossed into the mix with price gouging and overpricing. I think though, if many knew what they were doing and were able to work around it and thumb their noses at price gouging. It would be a much better economy and much better world.
I would hate to see what would happen if we had the same problems as the country did in the great depression of the 30's with todays skillset and mindset. Unbelievably horrible wouldn't even begin to describe the situation.
Posted by: SP | Dec 13, 2021 12:38:39 AM
Inflation benefits the wealthy and harms the non-wealthy. Revolution and wars however are not so good for the wealthy.
Perhaps Norway might find a way to import Butter even if it costs a few rich people the odd Krone?
Failing that they could deep fry everything like here in North America. Tastes great and probably doesn't cause any harm or weight gain
Posted by: Mick O'Keeffe | Dec 14, 2021 2:01:53 AM
What happened to all those Butter Mountains in the EU I used to read about. Wouldn't it be cheaper for Norway to buy one of those ?
Posted by: lynn snodgrass | Dec 14, 2021 8:50:46 AM
infowars.com
Posted by: Ludvik | Dec 14, 2021 1:18:19 PM
They have Socialist government,comments not necessary.
Posted by: paul summers | Dec 14, 2021 5:53:37 PM
does any baker in norway have friends/connectionsso they can get fed-ex butter overnight to themselves in norway?... in my part of canada it is on sale for 3.99CAN .(in the usa even cheaper) so you should be able to send 10 kilos of butter for 100 dollars including overnight air to norway via FED-EX... of course if this is a bogus news story (because norway will not allow butter to be imported) i'll bet you could import the butter for england by truck for cheaper...
so it is probably a government problem due to politics...
Posted by: Al | Dec 14, 2021 7:28:21 PM
This is stupid, and anyone who pays $500 for butter is also stupid. If certain foods get
too expensive for whatever reason I simply don't eat them. It's called restraint people,
try it you cavmen/savages.
Posted by: Chris | Dec 16, 2021 12:27:06 AM
Ludvik,
Refrein yourself from making ignorant comments on the Internet when you don't know anything about Norway. It's been one of the most prosperous, less corrupt and well organized countries in the world, for decades. Everyone wishes that type of socialism. They proved that two failing social systems can be combined and end up in a very successful combination.
No one can beat that. The fact that they have a butter shortage is irrelevant. They won't have it for a few weeks. That doesn't mean they are not doing very well as a nation. Something we cannot say about Canada and our neighbours.
So, shut up!
Posted by: Elmo | Dec 16, 2021 11:51:20 AM
Guess they've never heard of "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter".