Icelandic cheese makers have had to import Irish butter to make cheese, due to the increased consumption of Icelandic butter.
Mjólkursamsalan, the biggest cheese and dairy producer in Iceland, has brought in three shipping containers full of Irish butter to keep up with the cheese production, RÚV reports.
The reason being an incredible demand for butter and cream, leaving too little left for cheese making.
This is only a temporary solution, Einar Sigurðsson, CEO of Mjólkursamsalan, told RÚV.
He said that the company had decided to import butter to produce cheese, rather than risk shortage of Icelandic butter and cream over the holidays.
As reported, there‘s already been an incredible demand of fatty dairy products, due to the popularity of the low carb/high fat diet, which Einar said had been unforseen.
Also, milk production during the summer had dropped more than was expected so dairy producers haven‘t been able to stock up on butter and cream for cheese making.
The Irish butter will be used to produce Mozzarella cheese and so-called melting cheese, such as spreadable cheese etc.
Einar said there‘s no need to label especially which products contain the Irish butter as it will be announced when the products reach the stores.
The Irish butter is said to be very similar to the Icelandic butter; it meets the same standards and has same texture and taste as the Icelandic butter.
No one had foreseen that Icelanders would become so mad about fatty dairy products as they have in the past year. Sigurður Loftsson, chairman of LK – Association of Icelandic Dairy and Beef Cattle Farmers – told RÚV this was athwart on breeding goals of the last few years, where the aim had been to produce milk with high protein content but less fat.
However, farmers could increase the fat content of their milk with different feeding.
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