Japan needs butter!

Japan’s government has said it may need to resort to emergency imports of butter to make up for a shortage amid growing concern worldwide about food supply.

Japanese farmers have reduced milk production since 2006 due to falling demand for the beverage but the nation now faces a shortage in raw milk to produce enough butter. “If there is room to raise production domestically, we’d better do so,” chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura said at a press conference. He added: “If there (still) is a shortage, it will probably become necessary to make emergency imports of butter.”
Emergency imports would entail a government-backed body directly purchasing butter from overseas at low tariffs. Japanese supermarkets and other retail stores have recently been experiencing empty shelves while others limit per-customer purchases.
The international market for milk products has also tightened with lower supply from Australia and higher consumption by Russia and China as their economies grow, according to Machimura.