OSLO—Norwegians have eaten up the country’s entire stockpile of butter, partly as the result of a low-carb diet sweeping the Nordic nation which emphasizes a higher intake of fats.

The soaring demand for butter used in traditional Norwegian Christmas dishes has also contributed to the shortage, leading the government to slash import duties on the cherished product this week.

“I think this is absolutely ridiculous,” one shopper told Norwegian Broadcasting in a grocery store that hasn’t had butter to sell for the past four weeks. “It’s terrible with monopolies,” she added, alluding to Norway’s powerful dairy cooperative TINE, which controls about 90 per cent of the country’s butter market.

“Sales all of a sudden just soared, 20 per cent in October then 30 per cent in November,” said Lars Galtung, the head of communications at TINE.

A wet summer that reduced the quality of animal feed and cut milk output by 25 million litres had already limited supplies. The shortage has led some pundits to suggest that the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter offer some of its plentiful fuel supply in exchange for butter.

Butter consumption has steadily increased in Norway this year, partly because of the nation’s increased popularity of low-carb but fat-rich diets.

“Norwegians are not afraid of natural fats, they love their butter and cream,” Galtung told Reuters.

Relief is finally in sight. Dairy co-op TINE said that the reduced import duties announced Wednesday will allow it to dramatically increase domestic butter output since it will be able to use foreign butter to make other products.

That will be good news to Norwegians who live close to Sweden, many of whom have been driving across the border to get their butter fix.

Others resorted to more desperate measures. Sweden’s The Local reported that a Russian man was nabbed while trying to smuggle 90 kilograms of butter over the Swedish border to Norway; others auctioned their butter online.

One would-be butter vendor told Norwegian paper Verdens Gang, “I've seen an ad where they wanted 5,000 kronor ($740 CDN) for a box of butter.”