Without European Butter, Russia Making More Margarine Than Ever

One effect of Russia’s runaway inflation and international sanctions: margarine production is expanding faster than anywhere else in the world.

The country is the world’s second-biggest maker of the spread after consumers sought a cheaper alternative to butter and lawmakers banned imports from European dairies, according to a report from Oil World, a Hamburg-based market research firm. Output rose 13 percent to a record 933,000 metric tons in 2014, while production in most countries was stagnant.