Butter Shortage In France Means Pastry Orders Are Going Unfilled

A butter shortage in France is causing serious problems for bakers right before the holiday season, and pastry producers are having trouble meeting demand.

According to MSN, there's more international demand for French butter than ever, and there's just not enough butter to go around. The price of butter has risen dramatically over the last year, and that means the prices of croissants, eclairs, cookies, and Yule logs are all likely going to increase as well.

In May of 2016, French butter cost about $3.40 per killogram. By June of this year the price of butter in France was up to $6 per kilogram. By August the price of butter was up to $7.9 per kilogram, and bakers say they're having trouble even finding enough butter.

Claude Margerin Francois runs a pastry dough company in central France, and she said she'd been buying high-end French butter from one local producer for 15 years. Now she can't get enough to fulfill all her pastry dough orders. Demand for French pastry products has been increasing abroad, and Margerin Francois says she's been seeing more orders from Lebanon, Vietnam, and China recently, but she's having trouble filling all of them because of the butter shortage.

Margerin Francois says she's looking for butter everywhere. She tried cheaper butter from other countries, but she says she hasn't found a cheaper substitute that's high enough quality for her pastry dough.

The French Federation of Bakers blamed a milk shortage for the lack of butter. Butter producers can't get enough milk to fill all their orders, and now pastry producers and bakers are coming up short, too. Meanwhile, demand for French pastries and French butter is increasing abroad. Butter isn't the only thing coming up short, either. Climate change is affecting the availability of many products, including wine, coffee, and these 15 other foods.