New Zealand Freaks Out About 'Marmageddon'

Just like the butter crisis in Norway, the country is experiencing a shortage of MarmiteRemember when Norway had a butter crisis and everyone was either laughing at them or feeling sorry, and then that vlogger went viral after exclaiming that a butter shortage is not funny?

We might be having another one of those episodes.

The AP reports that New Zealand is having a Marmite shortage, of all things.

Marmite, which is a "dark brown-colored savory spread made from yeast," originated in the U.K., but when it was exported to New Zealand, a new version of Marmite (with sugar and caramel) was born. Thus, when the New Zealand Marmite manufacturing plant Sanitarium closed its factory after a recent earthquake, it ran out of supplies.

"Sanitarium regrets to advise that due to current stock shortages our Marmite spread will be temporarily unavailable," the producer's web site says.

The AP reports that supermarkets still have jars left, but they're going fast since the country goes through some 1,280,000 pounds of Marmite a year.

Of course, now everyone is freaking out and selling their (some already used) Marmite jars online, with Prime Minister John Key even admitting, "I'm going to have to go thin I'm afraid." One opened jar of Marmite was listed on the auction site Trade Me for some $2,900.

Sanitarium hopes to resume production in July, so we have quite a while before "Marmageddon" ends. Now we just have to wait for a vlog rant.