Is this the end of sour cream?

The reign of butter has returned since it was proven that is healthier than margarine. There is already a shortage of butter in Europe, its price has doubled, along with the price of other dairy products. There are a lot of opportunities unused in Hungary in the field of butter production, but as vg.hu reports, measures have been taken.

The wholesale price of cream and butter is at a ten-year record and has even doubled in the past one year. The reason for this – argues Zoltán Harcz, the managing director of the Hungarian Dairy Products Council (Magyar Tej Terméktanács in Hungarian) – is the shortage of milk in Europe. The shortage is a result of the 2015 liberalization of the milk market by the European Union, which also wound up the milk quota system, thus the prices have fallen. The falling of the prices was hard on milk producers, so most of them gave up their businesses. Brussels had to react quickly: a voluntary reduction of production was introduced, and compensation was paid to those farmers who have given up on production. As there is a shortage of breeding heifers in Europe, it is hard to replace the stock. Even though it was easier in the case of fresh milk, it takes much more time in the case of those plants producing fatter milk.

Hungarians don’t buy much butter, it is the French who are more keen on it: on average, a person eats 8 kilos of butter a year. German people consume almost the double of the EU average as well, with 6 kilos eaten by a person a year. The EU average is 3,8 kilos, about which Harcz said that butter is becoming more popular in Hungary, but Hungarians still consume less than the average: a person eats 1,6 kilos a year.

With the price of the butter, the price of other dairies rises too. According to the data gathered by the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, this is already a reality in Hungary. The price of the Hungarian port salut’s price has risen by 30 per cent compared to last year, the price of the sour cream by 15 per cent. The reason for this is that Hungary needs imported cream to produce greasy dairies. The Hungarian cream is not of good enough quality so it’s rather used for sour cream than for butter.