French butter shortage eases in time for Christmas
French pastry lovers can breathe a sigh of relief as new figures reveal the butter crisis that has led to empty supermarket shelves looks like easing,thanks in the main to people having stopped panic buying.
Fears that France's much publicized butter shortage could hamper Christmas culinary traditions were eased on Monday.
New figures released on Monday suggest that butter sales are returning to normal in France raising hopes that no one will have to miss out on their traditional Galette des Rois on January 6th or their Bûche de Noël (Chocolate log).
The figures by data analysts Nielsen showed that the phenomenon of panic buying butter, which was exacerbating the crisis, had died down.
Sales in the second week of November were slightly down (1.1 percent) on the same week in 2016.
The amount of butter being bought in big supermarkets was up 17.8 percent but that represents a marked drop on the last week of October when sales were 41 percent up on last year.
Apart from a fall in panic buying, butter production has also increased in France, thanks in part to a rise of 3.4 percent in milk production. In July milk production had dropped by two percent.
Data also revealed that many in France turned to margarine as a replacement for butter with sales increasing by 10 percent.
Nevertheless don't be surprised if your local supermarket still has empty shelves as things may take a while to return to normal.
Nielsen revealed that 47 percent of the demand for butter was not been met in the second week of November.
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Fears that France's much publicized butter shortage could hamper Christmas culinary traditions were eased on Monday.
New figures released on Monday suggest that butter sales are returning to normal in France raising hopes that no one will have to miss out on their traditional Galette des Rois on January 6th or their Bûche de Noël (Chocolate log).
The figures by data analysts Nielsen showed that the phenomenon of panic buying butter, which was exacerbating the crisis, had died down.
Sales in the second week of November were slightly down (1.1 percent) on the same week in 2016.
The amount of butter being bought in big supermarkets was up 17.8 percent but that represents a marked drop on the last week of October when sales were 41 percent up on last year.
Apart from a fall in panic buying, butter production has also increased in France, thanks in part to a rise of 3.4 percent in milk production. In July milk production had dropped by two percent.
Data also revealed that many in France turned to margarine as a replacement for butter with sales increasing by 10 percent.
Nevertheless don't be surprised if your local supermarket still has empty shelves as things may take a while to return to normal.
Nielsen revealed that 47 percent of the demand for butter was not been met in the second week of November.
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