Butter stocks low across Switzerland

Despite additional imports butter stock is running nigh on empty - with a severe shortage by the end of the year. The industry has reached out to the Federal Office of Agriculture to import a second batch weighing 1800 tons from the European Union. This should ensure sufficient availability until the end of the year, the Milk Interprofession writes today. In Switzerland, butter production remained low, while consumption remained high, emphasises IP Latte.

Back in April the Confederation had increased the import quota by 1000 tonnes on request - which corresponds to approximately 2.3% of the annual volume of butter sold in Switzerland.

In the meantime, it appears that this consignment is insufficient - writes the category organisation, which includes about forty regional and national associations of milk producers and processors, as well as companies in the industrial and retail sector. According to their own information they came to this conclusion after consulting butter producers, milk producers and the retail trade. These are in addition to negotiating the volume of the increase in imports and agreeing a compromise with the current negotiations on the price of milk.

The low butter stocks in Switzerland are due to a parallel increase of cheese. During lockdown there was no purchases abroad and the local demand for butter increased.

In order for the supply of butter to be ensured throughout the year, the industry considers that it needs between 4000 and 5000 tons of butter stored in freezing plants in the middle of the year. In mid-July, however, there were only about 600 tons.

With the 1000 tons of imports already approved in April and the 900 conveyed previously, the industry estimates the deficit for 2020 at 1300 tons. But, adds the association, an additional margin must be provided so that the deposits are not empty again after the Christmas period, traditionally intense for the baking of butter biscuits.