Christmas 2009 turned out to be strong season for traditional farm fresh turkeys with both producers and butchers reporting good trade at the recent Anglian Turkey Association meeting.
Speaking at the annual review of the festive season, Brentwood butcher Roger Kelsey reported an increase in bronze bird sales in his shop. "Sales of bronze birds were up 30%, while whites were down 25%." White birds are cheaper than bronze birds, 20p/kg in Mr Kelsey's shop, and he believes that consumers which typically buy the cheaper white variety were picking up deals at supermarkets and farm shops instead.
This shopping around for value was further supported by a 50% increase in sales of large chickens, as consumers looked to spend about £5.80/kg rather than £7.40/kg or more for turkeys.
Mr Kelsey also reported an increase in the number of consumers wanting extra things done with their bird. "They see celebrity chefs on TV programmes saying "get you butcher to stuff the legs" or "get your butcher to roll it". This, however, adds quite a lot of labour. Despite the consumers being more price conscious with turkeys, he saw the opposite with geese. "In other years, we never sold more than 10-12 birds, but this time we doubled sales."
Richard Beanland who with his father reared 2200 birds, 900 bronze and 1300 whites at their farm in Leicestershire also saw a shift towards bronze birds over white. "This year we had a shortage of small bronze birds."
They supplied four butchers, (780 birds) plus several farm shops and sold 280 birds direct at the farm gate.
Next year, he is looking to increase overall numbers by 200 as he had sold out early and reduce the number of whites, rearing an equal number of both types.
Source: Farmers Weekly Interactive
