For almost two years now, Israeli consumers have no way of knowing whether they will find butter on the shelves in their supermarkets. What began as a temporary shortage became a permanent one. Even limited amounts of butter on the shelves have become a rarity, and the butter tends to fly off the shelves almost as soon as those shelves are stocked.
Awareness of the shortage only exacerbates the situation. When butter does appear in the shops, consumers purchase much more than they plan to use. One advantage of butter, compared with other dairy products, is that it has a long shelf life, meaning that consumers can buy it in bulk. In response, some shops have introduced “rationing,” limiting the purchase of butter to just 200 grams (7 ounces) per customer. In some way, this is reminiscent of the period of austerity in the early days of statehood in the 1950s.
