By A.R. | PARIS
BARE shelves in food shops have been a sadly common sight in Zimbabwe or Venezuela, but are surely unimaginable in wealthy, well-run France? Yet in the past few weeks, those seeking butter in the country’s supermarkets have been met by empty fridges and apologetic notes from managers. The press talks of the worst butter shortage since the second world war and mentions cases of butter-hoarding. Social-media users, under the tag #beurregate, joke about selling small packets of the stuff—even an individual slice of buttered toast—at fattened prices. Beyond supermarkets, chefs and others lament soaring costs. The ingredient is vital for much French cuisine: a quarter of the weight of a decent croissant, for example, comes from butter. Its absence matters. The French remain both the heaviest consumers of butter and big producers of it. Is there really a shortage and, if so, why does France have bare shelves when other countries do not?