Norway struggles to overcome butter shortage,

By Lennart Simonsson Dec 16, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Oslo/Stockholm - A shortage of butter in Norwegian shops in the run-up to the festive season has resulted in soaring prices, smuggling attempts and an apology from the main dairy cooperative.

'We are sorry that Norwegians have been unable to buy the amount of butter they have wanted to,' said Stein Oiom, head of Tine SA, the Scandinavian country's largest producer, distributor and exporter of dairy products.

In the statement Oiom said the cooperative, owned by over 15,000 dairy farmers, had 'failed to secure a balance' between milk production and demand for milk and other dairy products like butter.

With demand rising amid Christmas cookie baking and other recipes that include butter, some enterprising attempts to cash in on the shortage have emerged.

Customs officials last week stopped a Russian man who had loaded 90 kilos of butter into his car, tabloid VG reported.

'He said he was going to deliver it somewhere in Norway. It is almost as if he had a middleman who was going to sell it,' a customs official at the Svinesund border crossing shared with neighbouring Sweden was quoted as saying.

Butter is also for sale on online auction sites. Some starting prices were 20 times over the regular sales price.

Differentiating between bonafide sellers and pranksters has been problematic, since some sellers have even offered to sell packets of butter that have been opened.

Dairies and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority cautioned consumers from buying butter from private sellers, saying that it was not possible to determine how it had been stored.

Some shops have tried to limit the amount of butter each customer can buy to make stocks last longer, while Norwegians travelling by ferry to neighbouring Denmark have been able to buy butter along with their duty-free spirits and wines.

The food safety agency said it had allowed for 'extraordinary import' of butter, and relaxed rules on how butter should be marked.

In addition to importing more butter, the cooperative Tine said it would reduce the fat content in skimmed milk to boost production.

A wet summer contributed to lower milk production but steep Norwegian customs duties - to protect its farmers - have been mentioned as another factor.

So-called low-carbohydrate diets, in which butter is an ingredient, as well as cooking trends where more natural products are used, are thought to have boosted demand.

Tine estimated that the shortfall would likely be over by January.

And while headlines proclaim a 'Butter Crisis,' some politicians, like Liv Signe Navarsete, local government minister, as well as aid agencies have called for moderation, reminding people that millions worldwide do not have enough food.

The Norwegian Agricultural Authority said Monday it would scrap quotas for domestic milk farmers during the rest of the quota year, which ends in March. In the strictly regulated agricultural market, overproduction often results in fees.