Social networks help spread the good news about butter
For those of you who have not been initiated into the greatness and power of the internet, Twitter hashtags are the topics that people are discussing and sharing with their friends.
And you should check out the hashtags #buttercoffee and #bulletproofcoffee.
Irish dairy farmers will be pleased to know that, thanks to Twitter hype, butter is making a massive comeback, after years of bad publicity.
The latest storm in a tea cup, if you’ll excuse the pun, marked by these Twitter hashtags, is the suggestion that coffee lovers should trade in their regular preference and insteadtry adding a lump of butter, instead of sugar, into a cup of black coffee.
The craze originated from Dave Asprey, an individual who ‘discovered’ buttered-up coffee, up a mountain in Tibet.
Apart from claims of improved taste, the promotor says that his product, Bulletproof Coffee, has nutritional and health benefits, including increased energy and brain power, and that it can surprisingly also help would-be drinkers lose weight — predominatelybecause butter gives a longer feeling of fullness.
This new-found interest in butter, and particularly in grass-fed, unsalted butter, is a huge positive for the Irish dairy industry, which is at a watershed. Dairy commodity prices have been wavering. Of course, New Zealand shares our grass-based approach to production, but, together, the Irish and New Zealand dairy industries are unique compared to other, major dairy commodity exporters.
This new trend has been gaining coverage over the last few months, including on reports on Fox, the US news channel.
Separate to this new fashion, spreading via Twitter, another good news story for butter has been ‘churned out’ by Time magazine.
Time recently ran a front-page cover story declaring that the war on fat was over. The headline proclaimed “Eat Butter”. The Irish Dairy Board couldn’t buy that type of promotion at any cost.
The article pointed to the fact that scientists had got it wrong, after realising that saturated fats were, in fact, not responsible for high cholesterol.
The blame now has squarely shifted into the realm of refined carbohydrates, such as breads and cereals and sugars.
Over the past 40 years, a shift away from high-fat diets has not achieved the desired health improvements; in fact, obesity, diabetes and heart disease have increased over that period.
New research has suggested that the saturated fats contained in butter can actually be beneficial.
Hopefully, there will be a boost to butter sales arising from these latest, positive PR stories. Over recent years, butter consumption in Ireland has been holding its own at about 2.4kg per head per year, which is actually well below the European average of 3.7kg.
Our consumption, however, looks miserly compared to our French neighbours (who are renowned for their culinary superiority), which stands at 300% of Irish butter consumption; a massive 7.4kg per head.
These figures point to the potential to push consumption within our own country.
Even in Italy, which is famous for its olive-oil-based healthy diets, butter consumption is on a par with Irish consumers.
More interestingly, when looking at the ‘alternative spreads’ market, figures from the Irish Dairy Board suggest that spreads and margarines have accounted for almost as much in sales in recent years as traditional butter.
Within our own domestic market, taking each of these factors into account, there should be capacity to grow butter sales through cannibalisation of the spreads market, winning back ground from margarine and spreads, and by encouraging overall usage.
Outside of Ireland, the potential for growth of Irish butter is phenomenal. Consumption of butter in China stands at just 100 grams per person per year, less than 2% of the average EU consumption.
Unlike other products, butter is not usually consumed on its own, as such opportunities arise from the sale of complimentary products, or products that work in tandem.
Collectively, we should capitalise on these marketing opportunities.
