Like the Song of the Summer, Butter (and Dairy) is Hot
August 9, 2021
You mean, you haven’t heard? Where have you BEEN!?!?
All over the world’s airwaves and (of course, properly socially distanced) dance floors this summer, the song “Butter” by Korean group BTS has been ubiquitous, entrenched at the top of the Billboard pop charts.
Dairy approves. It always helps an industry when its products capture an upbeat cultural moment. But honestly, in the case of butter and “Butter,” it isn’t shocking. Butter’s been on the rise for years now. It was only a matter of time before pop culture caught up with what consumers increasingly understand: nothing else is “smooth like butter.”
Some fun facts on how “hot like summer” butter really is, according to consumer data:
- In 2020, 78 percent of U.S. households bought butter or butter blends. That’s up from 74.5 percent in 2019. It really is everywhere.
- The average shopper bought butter or butter blends on eight more shopping trips during the year, on average, during 2020 than in 2019. Consumers gotta have it!
- Butter and blends accounted for 5.8 percent of all dairy products sold in grocery aisles in 2020. But they had a 7.8 percent share of dairy’s overall gain, another measure of butter’s growing prominence in the aisle.
- In raw dollars, butter sales rose by $621 million – a 19 percent increase – from 2019 to 2020.
And butter, of course, is a part of the overall dairy story. Dairy grocery-store sales rose 14 percent in 2020 from 2019, to $67 billion. And while the 2020 numbers for overall dairy per-capita consumption aren’t out yet, the trend line is clear: Dairy is winning with consumers – and not just on the radio.
So if you’re channel-surfing and a certain catchy Korean pop song gets lodged in your ear, know you’re not alone. In fact, the number of butter adherents is growing every day. That’s what quality will bring you – and that’s why we know that butter’s time in the sun will last long after the chart run is over — though we’re more than happy to be topping it.
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