Turkey prices up, but rest of menu stable

All scary stories about turkey shortages and big price hikes may have consumers feeling more like it’s Halloween than the season of Thanksgiving.

Martin said millions of turkeys were killed starting last winter in the worst outbreak of the avian flu the United States has ever seen.

But Justice said holiday deals in grocery stores and a supply of frozen turkeys from before the bird flu outbreak should level Thanksgiving prices.

Bob Transom, president of Oceanside Community Service, said his group is anticipating the need for 350 turkeys to donate to needy families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but this year he is afraid the agency will come up short.

Kane predicts that’ll mean turkeys are selling for a dollar-15 to a dollar-20 a pound, higher for fresh and organic turkeys.

Ann Olson, a shopper says “Not really, it’s Thanksgiving, you got to have turkey”.

Farmers believe this is simply a timing issue, and won’t have any impact on next year’s prices. “It affected only 3% of the population of turkeys nationwide”, said Keith Williams, National Turkey Federation.

It’s the time of the year again that turkey becomes the star of the menu in every American household.

Alexander, who tracks trends and changes in food prices, said that while the rise in prices might not be as apparent to the customer, though. But a turkey federation spokesman says many stores sell them at a discount anyway.

The CPI for supermarket food as of September was just 0.8 percent higher than a year earlier so you could expect to pay over $52 per person in 2015.

To make sure all 15 of the Busch’s Fresh Food Market stores had enough turkeys over 22 pounds (10 kilograms) to sell for Thanksgiving this month, meat buyer John Taormina began ordering in January. As major as the outbreaks seemed, the turkey supply has been reduced by only about 3%, with losses concentrated mainly in the upper Midwest, according to USDA data.

The USDA confirmed that bird flu had infected turkeys in an Arkansas turkey farm in Boone County that supplies Butterball, one of the country’s largest turkey processors. Loosely covered with foil it will stay warm while you can get on with the vegetables.

The 7.5 million birds felled by the flu are a small portion of the 46 million turkeys typically eaten by in the U.S.at Thanksgiving.