Norway has made an emergency food appeal to Iceland…for butter, because a serious shortage is hampering Norwegians’ Christmas preparations. MS Iceland Dairies has refused the request for help.

An MS spokesperson told Vísir.is that the company does not trust itself not to run out of butter at home if it decided to export a sizeable block to Norway.

Norwegian media are reporting that people are attempting to circumvent the butter shortage by offering huge sums of money. Half a kilogramme of the baking essential was sold online in Norway recently for NOK 300 (EUR 39).

The problem is not said to be stopping Christmas preparations in the Oslo area, where people are simply crossing the border into Sweden to buy butter — but other parts of the country are not so fortunate.

There are several reasons for the ‘crisis’ in Norway; the biggest being the country’s strict agricultural production quotas, the fact that authorities did not expect home baking to be so extremely popular this Christmas, and the fact that prolonged wet spells this summer reduced the productivity of Norwegian milking cows.

The large Danish dairy Arla is also not willing or able to help and Vísir.is has been told of plenty of people in Norway asking their Icelandic friends and family to send them butter in the post.