There is no need for panic over potential turkey shortages caused by avian flu and, while prices for the Christmas staple might climb this year, supply should not be an issue, butchers and retailers have suggested.
Multiple outbreaks of the disease in commercial flocks have been confirmed in recent days, and a housing order is in force mandating captive birds must be confined to limit their access to other poultry and birds.
“We’ve had this before on a smaller scale and, while around 45,000 turkeys have been culled, there are still plenty out there,” said Dave Lang of the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland (ACBI).
He suggested there will be demand for as many as 700,000 turkeys over the Christmas period.
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“If things hold the way they are now and the lockdown works, there shouldn’t be a major problem. But the honest answer is we don’t know for sure, and it’s fingers crossed and lighting candles time,” he said.
Mr Lang noted that, aside from avian flu, there is already huge pressure on the sector with higher prices across the board. He said turkeys would be about 8 per cent higher this year because of higher feed costs, higher energy and transportation costs and higher packaging costs, among other factors.
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A shortage in the weeks ahead would push prices even higher, he warned.
“As long as I have been in the business I’ve been hearing people say turkeys are going to be scarce and they’re going to be expensive but then Christmas comes and they aren’t scarce and they aren’t expensive; things tend to work out,” he said.
Paddy Buckley, of FX Buckley on Dublin’s Moore St, also expressed optimism that a full-blown crisis will be averted. “Prices may climb but it is probably too early to say by how much at this stage and it is too early to be panicking,” he said.
“We will still have turkeys on our shelves. The farmers are very good and I think they know how to handle this situation. They absolutely understand the seriousness of it.”
He said he has multiple suppliers lined up in case there are issues with one or two. “This is not the first time we have had to overcome challenges, and we will do it this time too.”
Bigger retailers are also monitoring the situation closely and playing down potential shortages.
A Tesco spokeswoman said: “We have no immediate concerns around the supply of turkeys to our stores this Christmas ... We continue to monitor developments on the avian influenza outbreak closely.”
Lidl echoed those comments, with a spokesperson saying the retailer is “following the developments very closely”.
“Our priority is always to provide our customers with high-quality, 100 per cent Irish turkeys for the festive season, which has been our long-standing commitment.”
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