Nuremberg bratwurst costs more because of Iran tension

USA TODAY – Western sanctions against Iran are having an unintended effect on a Teutonic treat: the near-sanctified Nuremberg bratwurst.

Germans are complaining about the rising price of the beloved sausages, which are made with sheep intestines imported from Iran.

"Meat in Iran has become much more expensive," said Nuremberg-based butcher Claus Steiner. "People in Iran are buying less meat, and the intestines are a by-product."

The price of sheep intestines has almost tripled in 18 months, he says.

As the West steps up sanctions on Iran to force it to abandon its nuclear program, inflation in Iran has hit 20%, and the price of food and other staples has sometimes doubled or tripled within a few weeks, analysts say.

At the same time, Steiner says, the Iranian sheep intestines he buys have surged from $8.16 to $22.84 per 100 yards (enough to make about 1,000 sausages), forcing him to raise the price of his sausages.

Arguably the most popular of all sausages in Germany, the Nuremberg bratwurst dates to the Middle Ages. It is a small, spicy sausage traditionally served by the half-dozen with sauerkraut on a heart-shaped pewter plate.

The links are protected by the European Union. They must be made in the southern German city of Nuremberg using a centuries-old recipe: ground pork seasoned with marjoram in a casing of sheep intestine.

Some suggest Iran is intentionally punishing Germany with the shortage. Rainer Heimler, president of the Society for the Protection of Nuremberg Bratwurst, which defends the good name of the sausage from the low-quality imitations, said he doubts the connection between politics and bratwurst inflation.

"I cannot imagine that as revenge on Europe, Iran might refuse to deliver intestines to prevent the Germans from eating bratwurst," Heimler said.

Heimler attributes the shortage to increased global demand, decreased numbers of sheep and exchange rate fluctuations. Sheep intestine prices have risen five times since early 2010. China and New Zealand also supply the casings, though sausage makers say Iran's are the best.

"In Iran the vegetation isn't as green and widespread as in New Zealand, for example," Steiner said. "That means the sheep have to walk farther and have a (poorer) diet of drier grass. This makes the intestines firmer, which makes them less likely to fall apart when you fill them with the sausage meat or split open when they're fried or barbecued."

Nuremberg is a city of half a million inhabitants in Bavaria, known for its beautifully preserved medieval buildings and traditional Christmas market, and for being where Nazi leaders were tried after World War II. But Germans know it for its bratwurst.

Nuremberg hosts a handful of large manufacturers and hundreds of small producers that make more than 1 billion of the sausages annually. Locals say no cheap imitation — including those made with Chinese sheep intestines — can compare.

"Nuremberg bratwurst have a great flavor and are very popular," said Marcel Grams, who works at one of the dozen sausage counters at Berlin's massive department story, KaDeWe. "We sell a lot of them to tourists who want something authentically German."

Bratwurst industry officials believe rising prices are unlikely to affect sales, since for most devotees nothing else will do. Even actress Sandra Bullock, whose mother is German, says she has been smuggling them into the United States at Christmas for years.

"(They) have to be from Nuremberg, they have to be the right ones, not impostors," she said on TheTonight Show with Jay Leno. "We break the law because we have to."