The Asahi Shinbun reports that butter shortages this year are going to make it a lot harder for Japanese to enjoy Christmas Cakes:

Dairy farms in Hokkaido and elsewhere have cut back on milk production and shifted priority to milk products for drinking and other uses that carry fatter profit margins.

Worse, a drought has reduced output in Australia, a major production center, and growing demand in China and Southeast Asian countries is cutting into supplies.

The butter supply to small cake shops and restaurants is 20 to 30 percent lower than last year, as producers are giving preference to large-lot users, according to confectionery industry officials.

Tomizawa Corp., which sells cake and bread ingredients, limited sales of unsalted butter to two 450-gram bars per customer from Nov. 1 at its main outlet in Machida, Tokyo.

Butter products, however, are usually sold out in the afternoon. Many customers are home bakers.

The store began limiting sales to 10 bars per customer in late September and cut that to three bars in late October.

“We are in a serious situation,” said Shigeyoshi Moriya, of Tomizawa. “Demand usually peaks from late November to before Christmas in December.”

The article goes on to mention that super market chains have secured large amounts of butter to sell to individuals, so consumers probably won’t experience anything close to the dairy product crisis currently going on in Venezuela.