Among the many food items that have shot up in price, at 32% year-on-year butter and margarine are among the biggest. You might find Greg Iacurci’s explainer at CNBC interesting:
The sharp rise is partly attributable to the same factors nudging up prices across the grocery aisle, such as elevated costs for labor and distribution, according to economists.
But it’s also due to global geopolitical events — like the war in Ukraine — as well as weather and other phenomena affecting the dairy industry and the market for vegetable oils, a key input for margarine.
“All the costs that go into producing a stick of butter, all those costs have risen,†said Matt Herrick, a spokesman for the International Dairy Foods Association, a group representing dairy producers.
It’s also a good primer on the economic concept of substitution. For making margarine canola oil, soy oil, palm oil, and…sunflower oil may be substituted for one another in producing margarine. The first margarine was made from beef tallow—practically any fat can be used. Between them Ukraine and Russia produce ten times as much sunflower oil as the next largest producer, basically more than all other countries combined.
There’s a war on which has resulted in price increases for sunflower oil. When the price of sunflower oil rises so do canola oil, soy oil, etc. And, of course, margarine is a substitute for butter. When the price of margarine increases, it raises the price of butter.
Worked all my life in the dairy industry and I do not know the answer to this question.
Why aren’t dairy products subject to the same product size shrink as say, coffee or candy bars?
Does the ASDA prevent it thru some arcane law?
Stacey Abrams has the solution to inflation; abortions!! : (in an interview with Mike Barnacle)
ABRAMS: But let’s be clear. Having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas. It’s why you’re concerned about how much food costs. For women, this is not a reductive issue — you can’t divorce being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy from the economic realities of having a child.
Sweet lady.
We can’t really know the gruesome reality of raising a Black child in a racist and violent America. Might as well cut the process short.
Yes, for Ms. Abrams, it’s that bad.
This article is patently untrue. It is all Joe Biden’s fault.
Steve
We get butter bulk from Costco and put it in the deep freezer. My wife then makes our own “margarine” with it. It’s easy and a lot more convenient that way, at least for us. But we don’t really like commercial margarine.