{"id":137253,"date":"2025-11-13T08:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/137253\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T08:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:45:15","slug":"butchers-and-supermarkets-not-expecting-bird-flu-to-cause-christmas-turkey-supply-issue-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/137253\/","title":{"rendered":"Butchers and supermarkets not expecting bird flu to cause Christmas turkey supply issue \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Multiple outbreaks of the disease in commercial flocks<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had this before on a smaller scale and, while around 45,000 turkeys have been culled, there are still plenty out there,\u201d said Dave Lang of the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland (ACBI). <\/p>\n

He suggested there will be demand for as many as 700,000 turkeys over the Christmas period. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf things hold the way they are now and the lockdown works, there shouldn\u2019t be a major problem. But the honest answer is we don\u2019t know for sure, and it\u2019s fingers crossed and lighting candles time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bird flu: IFA warns \u2018rogue operators\u2019 now pose biggest risk in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A shortage in the weeks ahead would push prices even higher, he warned. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I have been in the business I\u2019ve been hearing people say turkeys are going to be scarce and they\u2019re going to be expensive but then Christmas comes and they aren\u2019t scarce and they aren\u2019t expensive; things tend to work out,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"AssociatedAssociated Craft Butchers of Ireland says there will be demand for as many as 700,000 turkeys over the festive period. Photograph: Getty Images <\/p>\n

Paddy Buckley, of FX Buckley on Dublin\u2019s Moore St, also expressed optimism that a full-blown crisis will be averted. \u201cPrices may climb but it is probably too early to say by how much at this stage and it is too early to be panicking,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he has multiple suppliers lined up in case there are issues with one or two. \u201cThis is not the first time we have had to overcome challenges, and we will do it this time too.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bigger retailers are also monitoring the situation closely and playing down potential shortages. <\/p>\n

A Tesco spokeswoman said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lidl echoed those comments, with a spokesperson saying the retailer is \u201cfollowing the developments very closely\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Bird flu: what the latest outbreaks mean for Christmas \u2013 and are people at risk?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no need for panic over potential turkey shortages caused by avian flu and, while prices for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9484,103,61,60,16117,4013],"class_list":["post-137253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-christmas","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lidl","tag-tesco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}