warsaw
Presidential elections are to be held in the European country Poland in May next year, but the rising prices of butter in the country are giving sleepless nights to the government. The government is preparing to sell up to 1,102 tonnes of its frozen butter stock to control prices ahead of the elections. The Government’s Strategic Reserve Agency has announced the auction of butter. He said that due to milk shortage, butter prices have increased across the world. For this reason he has to take this step. The agency has expressed hope that the auction of frozen butter will help in stabilizing butter prices in the country. The auction process has started from Thursday.
The agency said it will sell unsalted frozen butter in 25-kilogram blocks at a minimum price of $7 per kilo. This is significantly lower than the prices of Biedronka, one of Poland’s major supermarket chains. The price of fresh butter in the company’s stores ranges from $9.84 to $12.32 per kg. However, the final sale price in an auction may be higher than the minimum price. It is not unusual for governments to use emergency reserves to increase supply and reduce prices. However, reserves are usually created in commodities like foreign exchange, oil and gold. Some countries also store food items.
butter and inflation
The skyrocketing price of butter has become a symbol of inflation in Poland in recent years. Rafael Trzaskovsky, the presidential candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling party, recently accused the country’s central bank of mismanaging inflation and offered to send the governor some butter as proof. Meanwhile, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the right-wing opposition party Law and Justice, posted a photo on Twitter earlier this month. The butter was kept in the safe. Its purpose was to show how expensive butter has become in the country.
According to official data released on Wednesday, inflation in Poland stood at 3.9% in November, which is much higher than the European Union. Butter prices at the retail level have increased by about 20% compared to last year while wholesale prices have climbed 50%. Butter prices have increased by about 44% in the EU this year, according to the European Commission. This is because dairy prices have increased across the world. Last month the dairy price index published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was 20% above a year earlier.
