Christmas Dinner Looking Expensive With Turkey Shortage

Would really like Turkey this Christmas but I would guess the cost of one will be astronomical. I’m sure a lot will decide they are simply too expensive this year. Sad times.
 
Way_Out_West said:
I think it is illegal to sell defrosted turkeys as fresh. They might be 'deep-chilled', so produced a month or so earlier, but never frozen.

Yes, suppliers would be well aware of the problem, hence the report. Hopefully it eases up enough to get adequate supplies, but to say it's like this every year is wrong.
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You are right - current legislation does not allow it.
Its at ‘proposal’ stage with manufacturers lobbying Defra to change the rules. Apparently its been ‘agreed’ but no official confirmation.
The proposal is to sell them as ‘fresh previously frozen’.
 
It doesn't say there will be a shortage of turkeys, just a shortage of free range turkeys. If people are desperate for it then the non free range options will be available and sure to the free range turkeys being kept indoors they will be exactly the same.

If you're paying free range prices this year it's to protect free range farmers so they are able to continue offering free range in the future but you aren't getting a free range turkey.
 
Nano said:
It doesn't say there will be a shortage of turkeys, just a shortage of free range turkeys. If people are desperate for it then the non free range options will be available and sure to the free range turkeys being kept indoors they will be exactly the same.

If you're paying free range prices this year it's to protect free range farmers so they are able to continue offering free range in the future but you aren't getting a free range turkey.
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Have you got any info on the non shortage apart from Free Range?
Most of the online stuff talks about ‘shortages’ in general.
As ever the binary reporting is great
One headline ‘definite shortages’
Another ‘too early to say’
 
1finny said:
Have you got any info on the non shortage apart from Free Range?
Most of the online stuff talks about ‘shortages’ in general.
As ever the binary reporting is great
One headline ‘definite shortages’
Another ‘too early to say’
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Nothing concrete, just what I get from reading the article. It doesn't mention the non-free range side of the industry and the protections are to bring the birds indoors which they would be doing anyway. Then the below is the farmer asking people to buy free range anyway even if they are more expensive and not 100% free range which I took to mean instead of buying the cheaper alternative:

"The free-range side of the sector has been heavily hit and, at the moment, we are seeing numbers of about 30-35% of free-range production either being directly affected by the disease or culled because of it," he said.
Under the national housing order, free-range poultry producers will still be allowed to label their eggs and meat as free-range for up to 16 weeks.
Essex-based turkey supplier Paul Kelly, who has 34,000 birds across a number of farms, said he hoped buyers would still purchase from free-range farmers even if birds had to be kept indoors for longer.
"Farmers can't be put out of business because of a few months when they have had to bring them inside. The consumer has to acknowledge the fact that these are extraordinary times," he told BBC News.
 
Lidl's freezers had plenty in yesterday. Haven't cooked a turkey for years, did try the rashers but was soon back on the real thing.
 
1finny said:
It is likely that most ‘fresh’ turkeys this year will have been frozen then defrosted for sale.
Suppliers have already told government and supermarkets the scale of the problem.
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Surely government have got bigger things to worry about than the supply of a dry, tasteless meat?
 
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