Exorbitant prices Russian supermarkets lock up butter

Russian inflation is driving up food prices. Butter prices are no exception. They are so high that the staple food is often stolen. Stores are therefore locking them away.

In Russia, the inflation rate in October was 8.6 percent. Butter has been particularly hard hit. According to the Russian statistics office, the price of a stick of butter has risen by 25.7 percent since December 2023, as T-Online writes.

The sharp price increase is causing people to steal butter from the refrigerated shelves as they can no longer afford the product. Supermarkets have reacted to this: Some now keep the butter in fridges at the checkouts, others secure it in lockable boxes or have locked it away completely.

Russia imports butter

To cushion the rising prices, Russia is turning to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey for butter imports. Its most important butter supplier, Belarus, has also increased its exports to the neighboring country.

But there is one obstacle: imports of butter from Latin America have fallen, which according to the authorities is also due to the effects of Western sanctions.

But it is not just Russia that is suffering from high butter prices, many European countries are too. The reason for this is the reduced fat content in raw milk, which makes butter production more difficult. However, the exact causes of this have not yet been fully researched. But experts attribute this to several factors: a change in feeding with more concentrated feed and less grass, stress in the animals, high temperatures and the increased milk yield per cow, which could influence the fat content of the milk.