As butter prices continue to surge across Europe, Czech politicians have decided to tackle the situation in the most effective way — by bickering on social media.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, ruling out any government intervention, blamed the high prices of butter on the market structure, with small number of firms controlling the prices — including Agrofert, which is linked to the opposition leader Andrej Babiš.
“The market should sort it out. Unfortunately, the market is not there. The market is dominated by three powerful players, including Mr. Babiš’s Agrofert and his friends, and they are simply oligopolies,” Fiala said in an interview with Czech tabloid Blesk.
Babiš, who is expected to return to power next year, hit out at the prime minister, calling him a “fool.”
“The Prime Minister is again babbling and lying about the price of butter … If he looked up that 60 percent of butter is imported into the Czech Republic and the biggest domestic producer is Madeta, he wouldn’t look like a fool now,” Babiš wrote on X. Agrofert, he added, “has a market share of only 8 percent, so it cannot have any influence on the price of butter.”
“Anti-Babišism is clouding your brain, Prime Minister,” wrote Babiš.
Fiala then pushed back against Babiš in a post on X with proof from the Office for the Protection of Competition showing that Agrofert controls 10 to 25 percent of the milk market.
According to the Office for the Protection of Competition, the Czech foodstuff market has “an oligopolistic character” It announced on Thursday it will investigate the high prices of butter.
The latest data from Czech Statistical Office show that 1 kg of butter cost 275 Czech koruna (around €11) in October, an increase of 11 percent in comparison with September and 34 percent compared with last year.
In Europe, a metric ton of butter reached a historic high of €8,150 per ton in September, and now costs €7,600. That is still more than the initial price shock that hit the continent when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Speaking of Russia, where massive spending on the war in Ukraine is causing the economy to overheat, butter prices are high as ever. So much that some supermarkets were forced to start selling butter in plastic boxes with magnetic locks, following a spate of thefts.
The main reasons behind sky-rocketing prices of butter in Europe include outbreaks of bluetongue disease in cattle and sheep, along with widespread drought, causing the global milk supply to decline. In turn, demand has increased and is expected to surge even further as the year-end holiday season draws near.
