Japan to Import Emergency Butter Shipment
- By Japan to Import Emergency Butter Shipment
- 03 Jun 2014
The Japanese diet is known for traditional staples such as rice, fish and miso soup. But make no mistake, Japan also consumes lots of that most Western of food products — butter.
So when supplies run low it’s a big problem for food producers, restaurants, bakeries and homemakers.
That is the case now, as the country faces a looming shortage due to sagging production of milk since last year. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced on May 21 it would import an emergency shipment of 7,000 tons this year, the country’s biggest-ever emergency butter import. The ministry also said it would need to import emergency shipments of skimmed milk powder.
“Butter prices have been increasing recently. I think the croissants and other pastries that use a lot of butter in bakeries have either gotten more expensive, or the sizes have become smaller,” Satoko Maeda, a homemaker in Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo, told JRT.
The emergency butter import is on top of the 3,000 tons Japan has already committed to importing in the fiscal year that began in April 2014.
The agriculture ministry said the supplies are expected to arrive in the autumn, in time for peak demand as bakeries churn out Christmas cakes and other seasonal treats.
One of the country’s leading butter producers, Megmilk Snow Brand Co.2270.TO +0.08%, based in Sapporo on the northern main island of Hokkaido, said it would raise the price on its Snow Brand Hokkaido butter by 2% this summer due to higher milk prices, the first increase since October 2012. The retail price for 200 grams, a common amount for household purchases, will increase to ?393 from ?385.
Japanese raw milk production has suffered due to last summer’s abnormally hot weather, and to the long and bitterly cold Hokkaido winter that led to a shortage of forage for cows. Hokkaido accounts for more than 50% of Japanese milk production.
Milk production is also suffering from longer-term problems, as dairy farmers steadily leave the industry, with many smaller operators finding costs unsustainable.
According agriculture ministry data, butter production in Japan has fallen month by month since July last year, plunging 23.5% in February alone, the steepest monthly drop since 1994. In April, private industry stocks fell 29.2% from the year before.
Japan imposes high tariffs on butter imports, but can import dairy products at lower tariffs each year under a quota system. New Zealand is the biggest exporter of butter to Japan.
This isn’t the first time Japan has had to resort to emergency butter imports. In 2008, it imported 5,000 tons as shoppers found supermarket shelves empty.
Nor is Japan the only wealthy nation to encounter a serious shortage. In 2011, Norway suffered a winter shortage, prompting people to line up for Danish butter and churn out their own at home.
Source from: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/06/03/japan-to-import-emergency-butter-shipment/