Why are butter prices so high?

Why buttering up your dairy supplier won’t lower your price.

Almond milk cappuccinos are being added to menus throughout London and Cashew cheese has become the “new parmesan”. Just take a look at google trends to see how much interest in dairy-free diets has sky rocketed over the last ten years[i].

Apparently Dairy isn’t so cool anymore. Now surely that’s wonderful for us full-fat flat white drinkers & butter slatherers — or is it?

Instagrammers will eagerly post about their coconut yoghurt power-pot yet behind the scenes pour double cream on their last of the summer strawbs. This illusion of everyone going dairy-free is a tiny part of the population, and so, it hasn’t translated into lower prices for dairy products. In fact, dairy prices have doubled this year[ii] and we are even set to have a butter shortage over Christmas.

Well we’re just as irritated about this utterly rubbish butter business so we’ve decided to investigate why this is happening and fill you in.

LESS DAIRY PRODUCTION — Farmer Jay, switched to hay.

1. Bad weather in New Zealand and Australia left production lagging ever since[iii].
2. 2016 saw a price drop in milk prices, this meant that farmers “hit the brakes” on dairy production and so in general, production was reduced by 5–10%. Farmers also switched to other farm produce due to the low value of dairy back then (oh those were the days).
   SO… There aren’t as many young cows to make up for the shortage we currently have “because of the period of prolonged low prices, the young stock aren’t there”, Mr Bellamy of Rabobank[iv].

Butter prices ove the last five years.

DEMAND FOR THE D– who ate all the croissants?

1. Butter ain’t so bad after all. A few recent studies have freed butter from the charge of causing cardiovascular diseases. Hell, one new trendy diet now calls for a cube of butter to be melted into hot black coffee now[v]
2. Poor Flora, margerine isn’t so sexy. Despite all those adverts trying to convince us that Stork is the way to go with cooking — we’re not sold (and never were)[vi].
3. GBBO mania. As if we don’t hear enough about this show, Bake off which “went with the dough” to channel four is also affecting our own dough as they’ve triggered a “home baking boom”[vii].
4. The Chinese are into butter now. The Chinese government are pushing dairy products as a great source of calcium & protein, causing the growing Chinese middle class to start buying up the butter. Apparently they also prefer importing the stuff. In fact china could become the world’s largest market for dairy products by 2018[viii].

So what can we do about it?

Sam Bryant from Coalroom’s fat rendering down (left), Smalec (right)

“We’re consciously making the decision to reduce butter” says Sam Bryant from Coalrooms. At his restaurant in the old ticket office of Peckham Rye station he serves his sourdough with a Polish dish called Smalec: “We render down pork fat, fry pork mince so it gets really crispy, then make crackling, add it all back to the fat and season it. It’s essentially a pork butter but it’s got all of these textures in it as well.” Sam also cooks with fat by rendering down the fat from meat, he goes through only one box of butter a week. “We use it for what we have to use it for, but even if dairy prices were to go back down, things like bread and butter I don’t think we’d bother doing anymore.”

You can also get creative, Sam also makes his own treacle vinegar and mixes it with extra virgin rapeseed oil British products to offer as an alternative to butter.

The British dairy industry is a fundamental part of our economy, heritage and agricultural system, it’s wonderful that our Dairy farmers are getting a good price for their hard work. Reduce the amount of butter you use through introducing alternatives; it could help you create a wonder of a fatty accompaniment which will get your customers talking, and use up all parts of your meat purchases. Sustainable, money saving & creative; maybe costly butter isn’t too bad a thing for our businesses.

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References

[i] Google Trends, “Dairy free,” accessed 10/10/2017 >ttps://trends.google.co.uk/trends/explore?date=all&q=dairy%20free<

[ii]Terazono, Emiko, “Why butter prices are at a record high”, The Financial Times, Date accessed 05/10/2017 >https://www.ft.com/content/8550f05a-6649-11e7-8526-7b38dcaef614<

[iii] Ibid

[iv] Ibid

[v] Bulletproof coffee is part of the Paleo diet read more: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/14/bulletproof-coffee-dave-asprey-eat-healthy-exercise-interview

[vi] Foodbev media, 2015, Stork bake tv ad . [online video] available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQi4tNQgUC4

[vii] Ward, Victoria, “Cake and biscuit sales slow down as Bake Off fuels boom in home baking”, The Telegraph, Date accessed: 05/10/2017 >http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/great-british-bake-off/11839482/Cake-and-biscuit-sales-slow-down-as-Bake-Off-fuels-boom-in-home-baking.html<

[viii] Frederico, “How to Explain the Growing Appetite for Dairy Products in China?”, Market research china. Date accessed: 05/10/10 >http://daxueconsulting.com/dairy-products-in-china/<

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