Butter inventories have increased amid a consumption slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to a fall in butter demand for use by confectionery makers and restaurants.

Uh, I think they meant that a fall in demand resulted in increased butter inventories.

So they are going to slash imports in order to keep the domestic butter shortage intact so that the price of butter will never come down. Protectionism at its finest.

Japan makes such hard work of butter.

Damn. Just as the price of my Fave French Butter had started to come down..finally. Japan and Butter..a constant sitcom.

Pays to have US base connections.

American butter tastes great and 1/3 the price of Japanese butter. And lots of unsalted available as well.

Dropping import volume is to keep the Japanese farmers happy as they are all in their eighties and voted for Mori.

My local supermarket has been rationing its tiny 150g blocks of butter to one item per customer for months now, and often the shelves are empty - not possible to buy even that one tiny block of gold.

When it is on the shelves, it's VERY expensive.

How about leaving the import quotas as they are (or let's go wild, raise them!) and at the same time put some of that stockpiled inventory on the supermarket shelves for people to buy? If possible, at reasonable prices.

The best buy (when I can find it) is imported NZ butter, 250g for ¥498.

Local stuff (again, when I can find it) is 150g for around ¥350, sometimes 200g for around ¥450.

We need higher import quotas.

And/Or the local producers need to do their jobs properly.

Butter's over-rated.

@Oukey. Not when you like movies and poopcorn

Actually - bar some of the artisan Hokkaido Butter which is incredibly expensive I find Japanese Butter to be tasteless (even salted) and over churned.

Beurre D'Isigny has come down from 1400 yen to 899 yen for 250g, since EU tariffs changed and although still expensive, infinitely superior to regular domestic brands at 450 yen for 200g. I'll be stocking up now.

@SandyBeachHeaven: American Butter sucks.

And yet, they'll still jack up prices to ¥1000 or more for a lb.

業務スーパー (Gyomu Supa) has lots of well priced NZ butter in it recently. Branches are everywhere and they have lots of other cheap & interesting foreign foods that are always being refreshed.

I could murder a bit of Lurpak and a few crumpets though.

@ClippetyClop: Cor - now my mouth is watering. Both can be found here, but the Crumpets available at Seijo Ishii are 'average' at best.

I have never and never will buy butter in Japan or anywhere else.

You butter believe it.

I have never and never will buy butter in Japan or anywhere else.

Why do you think anyone cares about your personal dislike for butter? it is quite irrelevant.

In recent years they were complaining that the demand was too great, and there were not enough dairy farmers left in Hokkaido to supply Japan's demand. Often the supermarket shelves were empty of butter products and I remember taking photos to send as proof to my relatives. For this reason, butter was very expensive, even if you could source it.

And now it is the opposite? And still expensive? Nuts.

Sure. - ”a consumption slump caused by the pandemic,”?

Last year, there ‘a run on’ dairy, pancake flour, okonomiyaki mix, etc during the “STAY HOME” ‘urge’-ency© phase. People were making there own ‘comfort foods’ at home,

instead of ”a demand for use by confectionery makers and restaurants”.

ahso:

Why do you think anyone cares about your personal dislike for butter? it is quite irrelevant.

This forum is for people to post their opinions. I really don't care for your opinions either, but that's the way it goes.