Are we going to run out of butter on the supermarket shelves? Currently there is no problem, but the producers as well as the sellers cannot promise anything for this winter… Stocks are indeed dwindling little by little.
These fears of shortage are above all fueled by a lack of raw materials. “There is a lack of milk production because there are fewer and fewer dairy farms in Belgium and fat because the hay harvested last year, which was a very rainy year, was less rich in nutrients“, explains Cécile Mathot, purchasing and sales manager at the Mathot-Sofra butter factory.
This results in milk that is less rich and in smaller quantities, whereas in the long milk supply chain, the butter sector is always served last. Result: the quotation of milk, that is to say its wholesale price, has doubled in one year. Therefore, manufacturers and smaller structures, which cannot pass on this price to the consumer, are reluctant to store as much as in other years.