Fresh turkey prices spike as bird flu plays havoc

The price of a fresh turkey has increased by as much as 45 per cent because of shortages caused by the bird flu outbreak, which said to have wiped out 1.6 million of the birds in the UK.

Not only are prices up but the choice of fresh turkey is also more limited with the number of whole bird and crown options falling by about a third this year, The Guardian stated, adding that this time last year consumers had 65 products to choose from but now that figure is 44.

The average price increase was 24.4 per cent across this group, according to the report based on data from supermarket analysts Assosia.

Frozen turkeys are also more expensive, with an average price increase of 18.1 per cent for the 49 frozen lines available both this year and last.

Last month the British Poultry Council (BPC) told a hearing of the environment, food and rural affairs committee that of the total 8.5 million to 9 million turkeys produced each year for the festive period, about 1.6 million had already died of the disease or been culled.

Free-range producers had been hit “very, very hard”, according to the BPC chief executive, Richard Griffiths, who said about half of the sector’s turkeys and geese, equivalent to 600,000 birds, had been lost to the disease.

It comes days after recent figures from Kantar showed that the cost of a meal for four – including frozen turkey, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes and Christmas pudding – is £31 this year, up 9.3 per cent from 2021.

With food price inflation at its highest level since 1977, the turkey is not the only element of the traditional Christmas feast that has gone up in price, with a separate survey by Kantar predicting households will have to allow about 10 per cent more in total.