Butter shortage spreads as global prices soar, hits croissants and kitchens alike

At the Mamiche bakeries in the 9th and 10th arrondissements of Paris, their famous pains au chocolat and croissants depend on an essential but increasingly scarce ingredient—butter.

- BLOOMBERG

The bakery's regular supplier can no longer provide a steady flow of French beurre de tourage, a type of flat butter used to make the pastries. Mamiche has gone searching elsewhere to ensure the steady flow of sweet treats from its ovens, but it's coming with a cost. Butter prices in most of the world are lingering near record highs, with little end in sight to the surge. It's the result of a complex interplay of factors—challenges faced by dairy farmers from France to New Zealand, changes in Asian consumers' appetites that's spurring global demand, and commercial decisions by milk processors defending their bottom line.

The end result is more cost pressure on consumers' favourite foods. "When we have to change supplier, we can really see the difference," said Robin Orsoni, commercial operator for Mamiche. Other providers are charging prices 25% to 30% higher, but Mamiche has to absorb the cost because "we want to make our customers happy, we need the butter."