Croissant crisis strikes fear in France
Butter shortage worst since the war
In France, some are drawing attention to the severe butter scarcity with humour. There have reportedly been online offers of blocks for sale for €250 ($375); the slabs would normally go for just a few euros.
One Breton joker even proffered a stale slice of buttered baguette on classified website Le Bon Coin. Con- sidering the dire circumstances, the toast was rather reasonably priced at just five euros.
“Tartine for sale smeared in real demi- sel ( salted) Breton butter, bought just a week ago,” the advertisement read. “I stress that the tartine has been toasted. But I did wait for it to cool before applying the butter.”
According to T he Independent, the cost of butter increased 60 per cent this year, soaring to € 6.70 ($ 10.07) per kilogram in August. The likes of bakers, farmers and producers have been speaking out about the ramifications for several months.
Now, the French press are calling the dearth of butter the worst shortfall since the Second World War. The reasons are intricate, The Guardian reports, but the shortage is largely due to growing international demand coupled with low levels of milk output in 2016.
As a result, shop refrigerator cases are increasingly bare; and pastry chefs and bakers are unable to buy to enough wholesale to meet t heir needs. Take croissants, for example — nearly a quarter of the much- loved viennoiserie is butter. An exceptional pastry depends on t he t echnique of t he baker and quality of i ngredients — most of all, the butter.
Claude François, a smallscale pastry producer in the Centre-Val de Loire region, told AFP that she has been forced to reduce her staff ’s hours by 70 per cent because she’s unable to obtain enough butter.
“We’ve been on rationed supplies since mid- August,” François reportedly said.
“We are only receiving a tonne a week when we need three tonnes ... We cannot go on like this for much longer.”