The solution was to limit customers to one small pack per visit. It wasn’t the company’s fault, though, US West Coast port labor disputes caused the shortfall. Now we have a butter crisis, but this time local farmers are taking the blame.
Japan isn’t a huge consumer of butter like countries in the West are, but it is required mostly for cake making there. However, something has gone awry and the Japan Dairy Association has had to issue a warning. Local butter supplies are going to fall very short this year, by at least 10,000 tons in the coming months.
This isn’t the first time butter has been in very short supply across Japan. In November last year a shortage occurred and it threatened the tradition of Japanese families baking sponge cake for Christmas. In that instance a very hot summer was blamed because it had a big impact on milk production–the cows were too exhausted to produce their regular amounts.
The butter shortage of 2015 is the fault of farmers, though. They have apparently given too much priority to sales of milk, meaning there’s not been enough left to meet butter production demand. The solution, much like last year, is rationing of the butter that is left and a move to start importing the stuff. That’s going to be costly, which will ultimately be passed on to the customer.
Before May is over 7,000 tons of butter will have been imported to Japan already, with another 3,000 tons on order for September. I expect there will be another huge order placed to arrive in time for December so as to meet the end-of-year sponge cake-making demand.
Source: Geek
