An inexplicable butter shortage in Norway
that authorities and the media are blaming on the growing popularity of
low-carb, high-fat diets has left the wealthy Scandinavian country scrambling
to find other sources of the precious cooking ingredient. After all, the
Christmas season is upon us, which means that millions of Norwegians need this natural
cooking fat to produce a multitude of butter-rich baked goods that have long
been a staple of the Norwegian Christmas tradition.
But it looks like many
Norwegians may have to skip the baked goods this year after all, since the
butter shortfall is expected to last until at least January 2012. In the
meantime, many stores throughout Norway have reportedly had to put up signs
explaining why there is no butter on their shelves, which has led to an
increase in online butter purchases and even butter smuggling.
Norway has high tariffs that
discourage imports of things like butter, which is why some people have been
compelled to try to smuggle it in from other countries. Officials allegedly
stopped a Russian man at the Norwegian-Swedish border, for instance, who was
trying to smuggle nearly 200 pounds of butter from the nearby country.
"Margarine just isn't the
same," said one beleaguered shopper at an Oslo Christmas market to the
UK's Telegraph. "When you are baking cookies you have to have butter,"
said another.
Some Norwegians are so
desperate to lay their hands on butter to make holiday treats that they have
actually shelled out hundreds of dollars to buy a UGG
Classic Tall 5815
sticks online. South Africa's Times LIVE
reports that some online sellers have been able to fetch nearly $500 for a
single pound of butter.
In an effort to bring things
back under control during the butter crisis, the Norwegian government has
agreed to cut import tariffs by 80 percent until the end of March, which will
likely be more than enough time to resume normal butter supply. Butter is very
popular in the Norwegian diet, and 90 percent of what is sold in stores is produced
domestically.
Since the tariff adjustment,
many Norwegians are buying butter from next-door Sweden for far less than the
other online vendors. According to Sweden's The Local sellers in the ugg boots cheap
are
offering butter for about $45 a pound, which is still outrageous by most
standards.