French butter shortage puts croissants and other pastry sales at risk

Traditional Christmas delicacies such as the Yule log could be under threat

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

French supermarkets have experienced a mini-shortage in butter due to the soaring popularity of the dairy product and pastries abroad.

A fall in Europe’s milk supply has also been linked to the shortage, which has hit the French regions of Brittany and Normandy the worst.

Some stores in France have been forced to put up notices stating: “The butter market faces an unprecedented shortage of raw material which has led to shortages in stores,” The Local reported.

The price of butter rose 60% in a year, reaching €6.70 (£5.97) per kilogram in August, according to official data. The increase has created problems for pastry exporters in France and fears of a shortage of Christmas delicacies such as the traditional Yule log dessert.

Dominique Charge, head of the national cooperative of dairy products, told French radio RTL butter was "more and more in demand in emerging economies like China and the Middle East".

Claude Margerin Francois, who runs a small company specialising in pastry dough in central France and has been buying Poitou-Charentes butter from a local producer for 15 years, told The Associated Press she has not been able to fulfil orders from Lebanon, China and Vietnam because of the shortage.

"I'm looking for butter everywhere," she said.

This weekend French newspaper Le Figaro responded to the butter crisis by publishing a short “survival guide” on how to cook without butter.

The threat of a shortage was reported in the summer, when prices were expected to increase sharply.

Matthieu Labbé, of French baking industry body Federation des Entrepreneurs de la Boulangerie, said in June: “Last April, we were paying €2,500 (£2,200) a tonne. Now it’s €5,300 (£4,700). At best, consumers are going to have to pay more. At worst, we may no longer be able to get butter.”

Additional reporting by AP