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Frenchman here, the shortage of butter is partly related to an increase in consumption of butter in China (and the United States as well) but honestly it is als

Frenchman here, the shortage of butter is partly related to an increase in consumption of butter in China (and the United States as well) but honestly it is also partly explained by a problem with the supply chain in the country. We produce huge surplus of milk every year, farmers end up having to throw it away because of EU regulation, so there's no reason why we should have a shortage of butter.

jpatokal 9y ago
The actual explanation is rather more boring: almost all butter in France is sold to supermarkets, who negotiate prices once a year. If world market prices are higher, dairy products sell elsewhere instead and French supermarkets run dry. https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21730877-forget-about-making-croissants-margarine-french-are-fretting-over-sudden-butter https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21730877-forget-about-...
- lumberjack 9y ago
  So it is not just the government that can cause shortages by mishandling the supply chain. I always thought, it is quite ironic how centralised the food supply has become, with a few supermarket chains dictating everything, as if they were some communist government trying to micromanage everything.
- yardie 9y ago
  How do you lock in a price and not lock in the supply. You can make anybody agree to any price but if they don’t deliver the goods you haven’t negotiated anything. During the ‘06-07 fuel price spike some airlines locked in a price and were able to keep decent fares. Others didn’t and added all sorts of surcharges. I couldn’t imagine them hedging fuel prices and not getting it delivered.
  - mywittyname 9y ago
    I suspect they would also be locked into buying said supply. Plus, this arrangement probably worked out really well for supermarkets in the past, this might be the first issue with supply that they've faced.
DangerousPie 9y ago
> We produce huge surplus of milk every year, farmers end up having to throw it away because of EU regulation, so there's no reason why we should have a shortage of butter. Source?
lhopki01 9y ago
This hasn't been true for decades. There are no milk lakes anymore because of the CAP. Spreading lies doesn't help matters.
- VeejayRampay 9y ago
  There's been a change 2 years ago with the end of quotas [1] Also, I'm absolutely not trying to spread lies about the topic, just pointing out that there's no good reason for France to be facing a shortage of butter given our dairy-production capacity (and those of our European neighbours). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_quota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_quota
  - tpm 9y ago
    No, the reason is the end to the milk quota system and market adapting to the new reality. At first the price of milk plunged and production went down, but then demand for milk fat (mainly) shot up. Butter was very expensive in many EU countries for a while, now returning to lower prices as production again rises. So the farmers are not throwing milk away because of EU regulation, on the contrary, currently they can sell everything they produce. And if they overproduce, it's not a failure of the EU regulation anymore.

jpatokal 9y ago

The actual explanation is rather more boring: almost all butter in France is sold to supermarkets, who negotiate prices once a year. If world market prices are higher, dairy products sell elsewhere instead and French supermarkets run dry. https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21730877-forget-about-making-croissants-margarine-french-are-fretting-over-sudden-butter https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21730877-forget-about-...

lumberjack 9y ago
So it is not just the government that can cause shortages by mishandling the supply chain. I always thought, it is quite ironic how centralised the food supply has become, with a few supermarket chains dictating everything, as if they were some communist government trying to micromanage everything.
yardie 9y ago
How do you lock in a price and not lock in the supply. You can make anybody agree to any price but if they don’t deliver the goods you haven’t negotiated anything. During the ‘06-07 fuel price spike some airlines locked in a price and were able to keep decent fares. Others didn’t and added all sorts of surcharges. I couldn’t imagine them hedging fuel prices and not getting it delivered.
- mywittyname 9y ago
  I suspect they would also be locked into buying said supply. Plus, this arrangement probably worked out really well for supermarkets in the past, this might be the first issue with supply that they've faced.

DangerousPie 9y ago

> We produce huge surplus of milk every year, farmers end up having to throw it away because of EU regulation, so there's no reason why we should have a shortage of butter. Source?

lhopki01 9y ago

This hasn't been true for decades. There are no milk lakes anymore because of the CAP. Spreading lies doesn't help matters.

VeejayRampay 9y ago
There's been a change 2 years ago with the end of quotas [1] Also, I'm absolutely not trying to spread lies about the topic, just pointing out that there's no good reason for France to be facing a shortage of butter given our dairy-production capacity (and those of our European neighbours). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_quota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_quota
- tpm 9y ago
  No, the reason is the end to the milk quota system and market adapting to the new reality. At first the price of milk plunged and production went down, but then demand for milk fat (mainly) shot up. Butter was very expensive in many EU countries for a while, now returning to lower prices as production again rises. So the farmers are not throwing milk away because of EU regulation, on the contrary, currently they can sell everything they produce. And if they overproduce, it's not a failure of the EU regulation anymore.