Icelanders have started using more fatty dairy products than before, leading to a shortage of minced beef.
In the past few months, people’s consumption of products that are higher in fat than protein has increased a lot.
Butter sales figures rose by 26% between September 2012 and September 2013. The same goes for cream, full fat milk and fat cheeses.
Baldur Helgi Benjamínsson, chairman of LK – Association of Icelandic Dairy and Beef Cattle Farmers – told RÚV that this is an unusual development and that the only explanation is the trend of the low carb/high fat diet lately.
“Demand for fatty products has been on the rise for quite some time but not so rapidly until very recently. It must be partially the low car/high fat diet that has sped up the demand,” Baldur told RÚV.
The increased demand for dairy products in general however causes cattle farmers to hold on to their milking cows for longer, sending fewer animals to the slaughterhouse which then leads to shortage of Icelandic minced beef.
Instead, more minced beef is being imported but Baldur hopes that’s only a temporary solution.
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